


City of Fallen Heroes

by adiwriting



Series: City of Fallen Heroes [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: AU after 4x10, Angst, Daddy!Oliver, F/M, Hate Crimes, Kidnapping, Terrorism, Violence, essentially Arrow season 10, if Arrow were to run 10 seasons, mommy!felicity, non-major character death, this is what I envision the 10th season looking like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:29:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 238,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5867578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years ago, Felicity was kidnapped and forced to do the unthinkable in order to return home. Convinced she couldn’t be the loving wife Oliver deserved, she left and tried to keep her darkness from hurting their daughters. The return of an old enemy will force Felicity to decide if she’s the monster she thought she was— or the hero her family believes her to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Now Comes The Night

**Author's Note:**

> This story is what I affectionately call "Arrow Season 10" because it follows what I imagine future storylines of Arrow could look like once Oliver's Hero's journey is completed and has enough plot and action to fill up an entire season ;) 
> 
> AU after 4x10. 
> 
> A special thanks to emisfritish for all of her help with this fic! For more information, follow me on Tumblr @adiwriting.

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

_“Okay, we’re in,” Felicity’s voice comes through over the coms while they wait outside the building for her instructions. “Looks like security has already been taken out, as were most of the cameras. Lucky for us, this guy isn’t as smart as he thinks he is. I’ll never understand why criminals think…”_

_“Felicity,” he says, cutting her off mid-ramble._

_“He’s in the basement in the southwest corner.”_

_“Got it,” he says._

_He breaks in the door and immediately pulls up his bow, ready to fire if needed. Dig and Thea follow after, along his flank. They have been at this enough years that they don’t need to discuss their next move, it’s basically muscle memory at this point. They quietly make their way to the basement, stepping over several security guards as they go, but not before making sure they are still alive._

_As Oliver steps onto the first step, a gunshot goes off, forcing them into immediate action. He hops over the railing and lands on the floor, pulling his bow back and shooting an arrow at the man shooting at them, knocking the gun out of his hands._

_“Oh god,” Felicity’s voice comes over the coms. “Um… guys.”_

_“What’s up?” he asks, only half listening as they watch in astonishment as the man literally disappears before their eyes._

_“He’s a meta,” she says._

_“You don’t say,” Digg says, sarcastically. Digg’s never quite gotten used to the supernatural elements that have been showing up over the last several years._

_They keep their weapons drawn, turning around anxiously, trying to see where he’ll appear again… if he’ll even appear again._

_“I’m pulling up the Central City Police Network. Looks like he’s able to become invisible and walk through walls,” she says. “Though if that’s true, why did he have to make such a commotion breaking in? Seems to me that he could just waltz in without anyone noticing and…”_

_“How do we stop him?” Thea asks, trying to keep her on track._

_“Right,” she says, sounding a bit breathless. He can hear her frantically typing away. “I don’t know,” she admits after a minute, her search clearly turning up nothing._

_“How do we know he’s even still here?” Digg asks Oliver._

_“We don’t,” he admits, but still not ready to let his guard down just yet._

_“I’ll call Caitlin and Cisco, maybe they have some ideas.” Felicity says._

_The coms go quiet, which means they’ve been muted and Felicity is working on a solution. For now, they are on their own. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying to trust his other senses to guide him through. He moves around in a cautious circle, trying to make as little sound as possible while he waits for any hint of the other man. He’s about to give up and admit that the man has probably left when he hears one of the stairs squeak. He immediately shoots an arrow in the direction the sound came from, Thea doing the same only a split second behind him._

_He watches as the arrow hits a seemingly invisible force and a voice cries out in pain. Slowly, the man fades back into focus. They’d both managed to hit their mark and the man has one green arrow lodged in his shoulder and a red one in his thigh._

_“Going somewhere?” Thea asks, wearing the sassy smirk that she always does when she’s particularly proud of herself._

_“You all think you’re so invincible,” the man growls, pulling the arrows out of himself. The man looks like he’s down for the count, but they all keep their weapons raised just in case he’s got any more surprises up his sleeves._

_“Running around with your masks like you’re some kind of heroes,” he continues. “But you’re not, are you? You’re not meta. You’re not alien. You’re nothing. There’s nothing special about any of you and you won’t be able to do anything but sit back and watch while your city burns.”_

_Oliver has met enough criminals in his day to know that they always talk a big game. Every last one of them. However, he’s come to understand whose talk is just that, and who needs to be taken seriously. He’s fought several of what Felicity calls “super villains” in his day. This guy? He’s so full of it that it’s almost humorous._

_“And I suppose you’re the one with the master plan to burn it down?” Digg asks, amused. Apparently they all have collectively come to the same conclusion. This guy is out of his mind, but harmless — relatively speaking._

_“Okay, so I talked to Caitlin,” Felicity comes over the coms again. “In theory, if you can hit him with at least 50,000 volts of electricity the energy should shock his cells enough to temporarily stop them from being able to rearrange, stopping him from being able to go invisible or get through walls. That should give SCPD enough time to get him into a cell in the meta wing.”_

_“So taze him?” he asks._

_“Basically,” she confirms._

_“Oh, oh, please let me,” Thea says, practically giddy._

_Oliver waves her on and watches as she shoots him with one of their special Taser arrows. They watch as the initial tremors from the shock wears off, then he looks at them in horror._

_“What did you do?” he asks, moving around, as if that’s suddenly going to bring his powers back._

_“What any non-superhero does when encountering meta wackjobs,” Thea says, leaning over him condescendingly. “Got our Geek Squad to science the shit out of you.”_

_“I heard that,” Felicity says._

_“Call SCPD and let them know where to find him,” he tells Felicity, while nodding to Digg, silently telling him to get the man ready for SCPD to take in._

_Dig takes out handcuffs that he’d had in his back pocket and handcuffs the man to the metal railing of the stairs, which should be sturdy enough to hold him._

_“We’re sure that the Taser worked?” he asks, always weary about leaving a meta unsupervised even if just for a minute, but knowing they really can’t risk being caught by SCPD._

_“Well, technically it’s only a theory,” Felicity says. “But it’s a theory from Caitlin so I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s a 99% probability.”_

_“Alright,” he says, satisfied with her answer. “What’s the ETA?”_

_“Star City’s finest will be there in 2 minutes with the entire meta task force. You guys should get out of there.”_

_With one last glance at the man struggling against his handcuffs, Oliver confirms that he won’t be able to get out before the police arrive and signals for the team to move. They keep to the shadows and make their way back to where they parked the van and Ducati several blocks away._

_“Felicity?”_

_“They are taking him into custody now,” she updates them. “The five security guards are being transported to Glades Memorial but appear to have sustained only minor injuries.”_

_“Well done team.”_

_“Thea…” he says in a warning tone._

_“You know it wouldn’t kill you to celebrate a victory every now and then,” Thea says._

_“It also wouldn’t kill you to hurry back,” Felicity says, out of breath. Had she really been that nervous for them? Even though their target turned out to be a meta, it was still a fairly run of the mill night compared to some of their more memorable fights._

_“You okay?” he asks._

_“My water broke about a half hour ago,” she says._

_“What?!” all three of them exclaim. He hits the gas and speeds ahead of Digg, suddenly desperate to get back to Felicity as fast as possible._

_“Why wouldn’t you tell me that?” he asks, annoyed._

_“You were in the middle of a fight with a metahuman, I didn’t want to distract you,” she says._

_“For the record, if this situation ever comes up again, you distract me.”_

_“You mean if I’m ever pregnant again and I go into labor while you’re Arrow-ing?” she says, her voice teasing, but now that he’s listening for it, he can hear the pain in her voice. He doesn’t know how he didn’t hear it the entire time she’d been walking them through the mission._

_“I’ll be there in 10 minutes, just don’t have the baby yet.”_

_“You do remember that these things take hours right?” she asks, and he can practically hear her rolling her eyes._

_Fifteen hours later — and in his opinion, about 14 hours too many — they welcome Anabella Jade Queen into the world._

****

**2026**

Felicity stands in front of the television, watching in shock as the news channel shows video footage of the state of Ivy Town. While the scene of the Bay Harbor City Walk completely decimated disturbs her deeply, the image that she can’t get out of her mind is of Ray Palmer — the Atom, as most people know him — flying right into one of the falling buildings. The reporter is saying that he saved the lives of 3 children, but that he didn’t make it.

He’s not the only one. There are currently 38 confirmed deaths and at least 105 injured, with emergency personnel continuing to search for over 500 missing people. 

“Felicity,” Anna, her assistant, walks in wearing a concerned look. Felicity knows if she’s walking in, that she must have tried the intercom multiple times. Felicity had been too distracted to hear it.

“What is it?” she asks, barely taking her eyes off of the television.

“Oliver is on the phone for you,” Anna says. She looks at the television and adds, “It’s just awful what’s happening in the world, isn’t it?”

Anna doesn’t wait for an answer, she walks right back out and gets back to work. Felicity sighs deeply. This is the fifth terrorist attack in several months, so Anna isn’t wrong. There’s seriously something wrong with the world if the only way it knows how to solve problems is by attacking innocent people. However, as awful as the other attacks had been, they hadn’t affected her as deeply as this one. She hadn’t known any of the victims before.

“Oliver?” she picks up the phone, knowing that if she doesn’t answer he’ll just show up at her office.

“Are you watching?” he asks.

“Yeah.” She doesn’t know what else there is to say.

“I can’t stop thinking how easily that could have been one of us. Every time you suit up you know it’s a risk but you don’t think…” Oliver trails off. He doesn’t need to finish that thought, she knows where he’s going.

“There’s a reason we quit when we did,” she says, but there’s no conviction behind her words.

When they walked away from the vigilante life, she didn’t think about all the friends she was leaving behind. If she was still on Team Arrow, would she have been able to foresee this? What if this was their fault? When they walked away, they didn’t think about all the friends they were leaving in danger.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “I know you and Ray used to… I just wanted to call and see if you were alright.”

“I honestly don’t know,” she says truthfully. “I think I’m still in shock.”

Ray and her had been over for years. Hell, she’d even married another man since ending her relationship with Ray. Still, they were friends and they’d been through alot together. He’d even entrusted her with his company while he went off to save the world from an immortal time traveler. His death wasn’t affecting her the same way Oliver’s had way back when they’d assumed Ra’s al Ghul had killed him… but she was still deeply saddened by the news. How was it that he’d been able to take down Vandal Savage only to be brought down by a fallen building.

“Are _you_ okay?” she asks. “This whole thing is eerily similar to the Undertaking.”

“Thea’s trying to call Merlyn to see how somebody managed to build the Markov device.”

“Putting the team together again? I didn’t realize Ray meant that much to you,” she says.

“No. If she finds anything, we’ll pass the information along to the Ivy Town Police Department. It’s just… We used to go to that harbor.”

“I know,” she says. She stares at the television as they show the old shopping center, now just a pile of rocks and broken glass. “They had the best mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

“I always thought we’d move back there one day.” The tone in his voice pulls at her heart painfully.

“Oliver… I can’t do this right now,” she says as the TV shows another clip of Ray flying into the building moments before it collapses. She can feel her eyes start to water.

“I understand,” he says sadly. “I’ll let you get back to work. Just let me know if I can do anything for you.”

“I will. Thank you.” she says. She means it. She always appreciates it when he calls to check up on her. “You’re still picking the girls up from school today, right?”

“Of course.”

They say their goodbyes and hang up the phone.

“Felicity,” Anna’s voice comes over the intercom. “Mr. Greenbrier is here to see you.”

“Right,” she says, swallowing a curse. She’s completely forgotten they had a date planned for this evening.

“What would you like me to tell him?” Anna asks. By her tone of voice, Anna knows she’d completely forgotten about it.

Frack. Today is not the day for this, but she knows she can’t reschedule on him again.

“Nothing. I’ll be out in a minute, just ask him to wait.”

****

Tomohiro Kato is an incredibly intelligent man. He was accepted into Carnegie Mellon University at the age of 15 and had a degree in computer science and robotics before his 18th birthday. He went on to get a master’s degree in Information Security Technology and Management and is now the youngest member of the IT team at Palmer Tech. All this to say, he knows things.

He has killer instincts, which makes him great at his day job, but phenomenal at his night job. See, when he isn’t busy repairing damaged hard drives, troubleshooting network problems, or working with the R&D team to get the latest software up and running, he moonlights as the resident technical expert of Team Arrow. As a member of Team Arrow, part of his job is to look into different crimes and track down criminals for the rest of his team to catch.

It’s those instincts that tell him that the attacks that have been happening around the country are connected, even if he can’t prove it with a single shred of evidence. In the span of 3 months, 5 major cities have been hit with a terrorist attack and in each of those, a superhero has died. It started with Fawcett City and the Marvel family. It wasn’t public knowledge that the Marvel family had died in the explosion, but he was very good at what he did and had long ago stumbled upon their identities. So when the news announced that Billy Batson, Mary Batson, and Freddy Freeman were among the 12 people killed, he knew.

Next had been Dakota City. A mass shooting at a baseball game killed 25 people and injured close to 80 others. While Icon and Rocket were able to take the men out and stop any further causalities, Rocket had been killed in the crossfire. Then, inexplicably, because he’d been previously thought to be immortal, Icon was found dead two days later.

Two events could have been a coincidence, he knows that. However, he’s watched enough cop shows in his life to know that a third is a pattern. When Supergirl died in an attack on National City, he realized that there was something happening, something that was bigger than just small groups of people getting together to attack a city to make a political statement. Though the attacks had all been executed differently and the guilty parties seemingly had nothing in common, he _knows_. These are part of something bigger, and whatever the plan is, in spans the country.

Only, he’s been looking for a link since August and he’s found nothing. Worse, two more heroes have died while he’s been unable to find something to work from and he feels like it’s entirely his fault. The world has lost Green Lantern and Atom and he’s been unable to stop it.

“What do you have for me?” Miyo asks, as she and Riley make their way over after finishing up their training session.

“Absolutely nothing,” he grumbles. “I can find zero evidence to suggest that any of these events are related.”

“Maybe that means they aren’t,” Riley says.

The entire team has been reluctant to believe him. He’s not sure if they aren’t taking him seriously because they are scared he’s right or if they are just stupid enough to think they are invincible. The team has been training extensively for years, but he’s not sure they will ever be as good as the Original Team Arrow was, and even _they_ didn’t hold a candle to the abilities that Supergirl or Green Lantern had… and look how easily they were brought down.

“Okay, can you like pause your investigation and quest to solve the problems of the entire world for like two seconds and let us know what you’ve found out specifically about the threat to this city?” Miyo asks, and Tomo has to bite his tongue.

He may love his sister dearly, but he swears sometimes he’s not sure why she was brought into this, let alone who decided she would wear the green hood. She was no Oliver Queen — and yes, he knows the identities of all of the original team; like he said, he’s good at his job. His sister may have some insane skills with a bow and arrow, and she might be able to bring down guys more than twice her size, but she’s also 21 years old and sometimes that’s incredibly obvious.

“Yes, I’m dying to hit something tonight,” Sean says as he and Blayne walk down the stairs hand in hand. “Tell me you’ve got something good for us.”

Tomo sighs and tries not to roll his eyes.

“There was a break in at Kord Industries and they are being pretty tight lipped about what was stolen,” he informs them, closing out of his search to pull up the schematics of the warehouse that was broken into. 

“What do you think it was?” Miyo asks.

“I don’t know, but if they weren’t willing to tell the police, I’m sure that whatever it was, probably shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” He says.

“Guess that means it’s time to suit up,” Blayne says with a wide smile.

****

_**2021** _

_“She’s perfect,” Thea says._

_“She look like a boy,” Grace says, eyeing her little sister curiously while Thea holds her._

_“She does not,” Felicity says with a chuckle, leaning back into her pillows. She’s exhausted. Oliver had tried to get her to rest, but she’d insisted on staying awake at least a little bit longer so that she could see everyone’s reaction when they met their newest addition to their family._

_“She don’t have no hair,” Grace argues, tentatively poking Ella._

_“Careful,” Oliver warns her. “You need to be gentle with your sister.”_

_“You know, you didn’t have any hair either when you were born,” Thea says. “She’s a baby. It will grow.”_

_Grace doesn’t look like she believes her aunt, but doesn’t say anything._

_“Mom would have loved her,” Thea says, looking at Oliver._

_“Yeah, she would have,” he says with a serene smile. She recognizes that smile. It’s the same smile he gets when he’s staring at Grace and doesn’t think that anyone else notices. She wonders if he ever thought that he would get this._

_“What she would not have loved is the mother of your children,” Felicity says, trying to lighten the mood before thoughts of Moira Queen cause Thea and Oliver to brood._

_“She would have come around eventually,” Oliver says, not even trying to deny the fact that, yeah, Moira Queen had hated Felicity with a passion._

_“Well, I think it’s time to get you to preschool, Ms. Grace,” Thea says, handing Ella back to Oliver, but not before placing a light kiss on her forehead. “And I’ve got to get to work.”_

_“Thanks for bringing Grace by,” Felicity says._

_“Of course,” she says with a smile, leaning in to hug Felicity. “Seriously, you two make adorable kids.”_

_Felicity just smiles and watches Oliver give Thea a hug._

_“I’ll get a press release drafted and send it to you for approval this afternoon,” she says to Oliver before turning to Grace. “Say goodbye to Mommy and Daddy.”_

_Grace attempts to crawl onto the bed and fails, until Oliver leans over and helps her up. She curls up next to Felicity and wraps her little arms around her._

_“I love you, Mommy,” she says._

_“I love you, too.”_

_“I like Baby Ella, too,” she says. “Even if she don’t have no hair.”_

_The adults all laugh and say their goodbyes and soon it’s back to just Oliver and her in the room with Ella._

_“Everyone else promised to come by later in the afternoon so that you could rest up,” he says, taking a seat next to her on the bed so that they can cuddle their daughter together._

_“Will you ask Digg to bring my tablet when he comes?” she asks._

_“No,” Oliver says, sternly. “We’re not working. You and I are taking some much needed days off.”_

_“Of course we are,” she says, not really believing it. “But first, I just want to check in on what the SCPD got off the meta we took down last night.”_

_“Felicity.”_

_“Oliver,” she says mimicking his tone. “Seriously. All I need is twenty minutes.”_

_He gives her a disbelieving look. It’s the exact same disbelieving look that Grace had given Thea only a few minutes ago._

_“An hour, tops. Then I promise, pending the end of the world or other equally sucky things threatening the city, I won’t touch my tablet for anything but posting adorable baby pictures for the rest of the week.”_

_He nods, accepting her deal._

_“I love you,” he says. He hands a fussy Ella over to Felicity so that she can feed her, then snuggles up next to her. He’s stroking Ella’s cheek while she eats when he says, “Thank you.”_

_“For what?”_

_“For our two beautiful daughters,” he says. “Thea was right, they are perfect.”_

_“I think you and your perfect DNA had a hand in that.”_

****

**2026**

Oliver sits at his desk going through some paperwork in order to prepare for the upcoming council meeting later on that afternoon. Most of the stuff that is on the agenda to discuss is fairly mundane, which is good for him. His focus has been off ever since he found out about Ray dying yesterday. He’s worried about Felicity and how she’s handling the news. She’d assured him that she was fine when he had asked her again this morning after dropping the girls off, but he knows that she doesn’t always tell him the truth anymore. When they got divorced, he’d lost the right to know everything about her.

Felicity and him are on good terms with each other, all things considered. They talk often and spend most holidays together so that the girls don’t have to go back and forth. Besides sharing custody of two daughters, they have so many close friends in common that it really would be difficult for them to be anything other than friendly. Friendly as they might be, however, they aren’t together anymore and that worries him. What if she’s really struggling and nobody is there to see through her fake smiles and false reassurances?

He debates picking up the phone to call her, but thinks better of it. Their friendship works because he’s very careful not to cross the line from caring friend to overbearing ex-husband.

Maybe he can get Thea to check up on her.

Almost the second he thinks it, his sister comes walking into his office wearing a serious expression.

“What happened now?” he asks. Thea is almost always wearing a smile these days and has been ever since Roy proposed to her three months ago. He knows if she’s looking serious, that something is wrong.

“We just got a call from Commissioner Lopez,” she says. “There are valid threats against the Glades Memorial fundraiser tonight.”

“What kind of threats?” he asks with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This memorial is important to him and it’s been in the works for months. Why do criminals have to target charity events? Can’t they at least have the respect to target something that wasn’t meant for the city’s needy?

“The kind that make me think we might need to cancel the event,” she admits, taking a seat in front of him. Thea is usually the last one to give into a threat. She’s a fierce mix of bravery, stubbornness, and stupidity that always makes her jump without looking. It’s a trait he both loves and hates about her.

“You think we should cancel the event,” he repeats, his tone disbelieving.

“You’ve seen the riots in Coast City, right?” she says. “The people are demanding half of city council’s head after the attack there because they think that the police chief knew about it before hand and didn’t stop it.”

“Showing that we are willing to back down at merely a threat is equally as dangerous,” he explains, rubbing his face in frustration. “It sets a bad precedent.”

“So you’d risk a massacre at a hospital?” she asks. “Ollie, half of the people there would be too sick or hurt to help themselves if something happened.”

“I know,” he says. “I’m not saying we won’t cancel it… I’m just saying we need to consider this from all angles. What did Commissioner Lopez say?”

“He said that we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” she says. “But he also commented that if we had another reason to cancel the event, like bad weather, it wouldn’t technically be negotiating.”

“That does sound like him,” Oliver says with a snort. He moves to press his intercom. “Maggie, can you send Digg in here please?”

“Of course, Mr. Queen,” his assistant says.

“Now might be a good time for you to call your friend in the hood,” he tells Thea, giving her a pointed look.

“You know, with everything that’s going on, it might be time for that friend in the hood to be you.”

“Everything being the fact that masks are dying left and right across the country?” he asks.

“Most people call us superheroes.”

He snorts at that. There was never anything super about what they did. Half of the time, they were running around clueless as to how to stop the threats that constantly plagued the city. Try as they might, they were never prepared enough to take on the Malcolm Merlyn’s, Slade Wilson’s, Damien Darhk’s, and Abraham Sokolski’s of the world — not without too many causalities.

“We were never super, and it’s not an us anymore. We retired,” he reminds her, but of course his words fall on deaf ears. 

“It’s probably time to get back in the field,” she says. 

“We aren’t heroes anymore,” he says, giving her a look that says this conversation is over. “Make a call to Team Arrow and inform them of the threat. They should be able to handle everything on their end.”

“And on our end?” she asks.

“I’ll get Digg to work with SCPD to make sure that nobody that attends that fundraiser gets hurt.”

****

_**2021** _

_Oliver watches his girls from his spot in the kitchen where he’s cooking dinner. Felicity is on the couch burping Ella. Donna is sitting next to her, folding laundry. Thea is on the floor with Grace playing “Pretty Pretty Princess.” There is very little, if anything, that could make the scene before him more perfect._

_In all the ways he’d imagined his life going, he’d never pictured this is where he’d end up. For a long time, he didn’t think he was worthy of it. When he was younger and still naive to the ways of the world, he had assumed that what he had with Laurel was as good as it was going to get. The two of them would be happy enough. They’d get married and have some kids, and he and Tommy would always have their weekends away to hook up with other women. He’d have his cake and eat it too, and that had seemed like the perfect life to him. He never imagined that he’d be lucky enough to find a girl that would make him stop looking for anyone else. At the time, he figured that kind of love only existed in movies. None of his friends had ever experienced it, nor had any of their parents if the Starling City gossip chain was any indication._

_After the Gambit, he never thought he’d make it home alive. He lived day to day, always surprised when he survived another night. At that time, hooking up with the few girls he’d come across during his 5 years of hell was as good as it got. He didn’t think about forever, because he could barely think about tomorrow._

_Once he was home, he knew that the last thing any decent girl should do is connect themselves to him. That was why, when he first realized he had feelings for Felicity the night he’d hooked up with Isabel Rochev, he had done nothing about it. If anything, he’d pushed her away with constant speeches about how he couldn’t be with somebody he cared about. He’d been so scared that he would be the destruction of Felicity._

_He was an idiot. That’s really the only explanation for it. Standing in the kitchen watching his girls… it doesn’t get any better and he doesn’t know why he denied himself this happiness for as long as he did._

_“No, Auntie Tia!” Grace’s giggles echo in the quiet space, making his heart fill with joy. “You wear on your fin-er.”_

_Oliver looks over to see his sister attempting to put a ring in her hair, making Grace fall over as she laughs uncontrollably._

_Felicity meets his eyes over the back of the couch and they share a secret smile. He knows that Felicity never pictured her life ending like this either, but they are both so incredibly happy that it has._

_He puts the roast in the oven and is making his way over to the living room when there’s a knock at the door. They all look at each other in confusion. The building they live in has a doorman and a floor that can only be accessed with a keycard that only Felicity, Oliver, and the doorman have. Any guest that comes to visit them has to check in with the doorman and they get a phone call informing them of said visitor. There had been no phone call, so there should not be any knock at their door._

_They all seem to realize something is wrong at the same time, as Thea leaps to her feet, her carefree demeanor instantly replaced with a cold one._

_“Thea, take everyone into the bedroom,” he directs her walking cautiously towards the door._

_He doesn’t know what’s about to happen, but if something is going to go down, he sure as hell is going to make sure that they are all far away from it and with somebody that can defend them._

_Felicity hands Ella to Thea who takes both girls into the bedroom, followed by Donna._

_“Felicity,” he whispers in a warning tone._

_“I’m not leaving you out here by yourself,” she says, and her voice is firm._

_“This isn’t up for discussion,” he argues._

_She doesn’t listen to him. Instead, she picks up her tablet and pulls up the feed for the security camera they’d installed outside the door for the unlikely occurrence anything like this ever happened._

_“Oh my god,” she gasps when the screen loads. “How is this even possible?”_

_“Who is it?” he asks, glancing over the shoulder. He doesn’t recognize the man._

_“Dad?” she says aloud, but he can tell that she’s lost in her own thoughts and not really responding to him._

_His eyes dart towards the door, wondering what is going on. He knows about Felicity’s dad. Well, as much as is possible to know about a man who’d abandoned the Smoak women when Felicity was only 7. Felicity and he have had long discussions about how her father leaving had upset her deeply and caused her to have serious abandonment issues that still affect her even now._

_The man knocks on the door again, this time louder._

_“It’s rude to keep your guests waiting, Klara,” the man says loudly._

_“Klara?” he asks, looking at Felicity in confusion as she moves quickly to the door. Her face is terrified, but he can’t tell if it’s just the emotional pain of seeing somebody who’d once caused her pain, or if there was a legitimate threat to their safety._

_The door opens and the man steps into their home without so much as an invitation._

_“Hello darling,” the man says, leaning in to give Felicity a kiss on the cheek. He steps around her, right into their home where he immediately moves to take off his jacket._

_“Can we help you?” Oliver asks._

_“Abraham Sokolski,” the man — Abraham — introduces himself, holding out his hand. Oliver tentatively takes it, giving Felicity a questioning look while he does. What is going on here?_

_“Surely my Klara has told you all about me,” he says, then looks amused between the two of them. “No? Well, this is awkward. So where are my grandbabies?”_

_“What are you doing here?” Felicity asks. Her voice is small, smaller than it’s been in years. She’s one of the bravest people he knows, she doesn’t let fear control her, not anymore. Yet, this man has reduced her to a trembling mess in a matter of 30 seconds._

_He moves to stand beside her, placing a hand at the small of her back. It’s both for emotional support and a strategic move. If something is about to happen, he’s sure as hell going to be close enough to protect her from any physical attack._

_“Well, I was watching the news this morning and was shocked to see a picture of my daughter and her husband. Granted it took me a moment to recognize you with that blonde hair.” He sounds disgusted and Oliver’s hands instantly turn into a fist, ready to hit him._

_Felicity reaches out and squeezes his hip, silently telling him to calm down. He relaxes, but only slightly. He needs to know what is going on and he needs to know now._

_“How did you get past our doorman?” Oliver asks, suspicious._

_Abraham looks sheepish for a second and it’s a look that he’s seen before — a look Felicity sometimes gives him when she knows she’s done something she shouldn’t have. It hits him hard. This is really her father._

_“I wanted to surprise you, so I paid off your doorman to let me up.”_

_“Well he’s fired,” Felicity says, voicing Oliver’s thoughts exactly. What the hell was the point of paying so much money to live here if anybody could bribe their way into their home?_

_“Abraham?” He hears Donna’s surprised gasp. She comes out, her face a mixture of shock and rage. “You’ve got some nerve showing up here.”_

_“Aleksandra,” he says. “I had no idea that you would be here.”_

_“My name is Donna,” she says. “I haven’t been Aleksandra in a long time.”_

_“Donna,” he repeats. “Felicity.”_

_He says their names like he’s testing them out, looking both women up and down in a way that makes Oliver squirm._

_What is this man talking about? Were Donna and Felicity’s names really Aleksandra and Klara? How is that even possible. He would know if that were true. He’d done background checks on both women before he’d even approached Felicity for the first time. He realizes that there’s a very big piece of the puzzle that Felicity had never told him about and that concerns him._

_Felicity doesn’t keep secrets from him. 100% honesty, that’s what they promised each other when they got married. Too many lies had come between them in the past for them to allow it in their marriage. Still, Oliver knows his wife well. If she’s lied to him about her father, it’s because there’s something she’s ashamed of him finding out._

_“I can’t say I like it,” Abraham says with a deep sigh._

_“Well you don’t have to,” Donna says, bitingly. “My new husband likes it just fine.”_

_Oliver is impressed. Donna’s never been anything but overly sweet to him. The woman he knows is energetic, optimistic, at times too excitable and ditzy, but always, unfailingly caring. He’s never seen this side of Donna, though he knew it had to exist somewhere. You don’t raise a child on your own in the neighborhood Felicity grew up in without one hell of a backbone. You don’t raise a kid as brave and bold as Felicity is without your own strength._

_“I’m not here to argue with you… Donna,” he says her name with disgust in his tone, but Oliver can see that the man is trying._

_He doesn’t know what to make of the situation. Clearly, neither does Felicity, if her silence is anything to go by._

_“Why are you here at all?” Donna asks. “You lost all rights to this family when you walked away twenty-five years ago.”_

_“If I remember correctly, you’re the one that gave me the ultimatum,” he says._

_“Yes, and you made your choice,” Donna says. Her voice is full of venom, and Oliver suddenly understands just where Felicity got her angry voice from. Donna’s even more terrifying than Felicity when she gets going. “I suggest you leave before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing. You’re still on parole, I’m guessing?”_

_“What?” Oliver asks. Parole? He steps in front of Felicity, protectively. He’s not sure he wants to know why this man has been in jail, knowing he’s a criminal and Donna hates him is reason enough for Oliver to know he doesn’t want him in his house._

_“I think it’s pretty clear that you are not welcome in this home,” he says using his Arrow voice._

_Abraham looks unimpressed._

_“Klara.”_

_“Her name is Felicity,” Oliver says before Felicity can say anything. Lord knows he won’t have any control over the situation if Felicity is given the time to collect herself and find her angry voice._

_“Klara,” he repeats, his voice softer this time. “I know you have no reason to trust me. Lord knows the things your mother has told you about me over the years.”_

_Donna scoffs at his, but Abraham keeps talking._

_“I know that I’ve missed out on 25 years of your life. Hear me when I tell you that I never wanted to leave you and have missed you every day since I’ve been gone.”_

_Felicity crosses her arms and squares her shoulders, Oliver can see her pulling herself together. She looks like she’s about to give in when Ella starts crying from the bedroom. They all look towards the closed door where Thea has been with Grace and Ella the whole time._

_“I saw their picture in the paper,” Abraham says with a smile. “They really are beautiful children.”_

_If Abraham thought that talking to Felicity about her daughters would warm her to him, he’d made a poor calculation. Oliver can see the exact moment that her features grow cold. Her eyes snap to her dad’s with the same glare she gives to Malcolm Merlyn whenever she sees him. It’s a look of pure hatred with no hope of redemption._

_“As my husband said, you are not welcome in this house,” she says. “I don’t know why you ever thought you would be.”_

_“I’m just asking for a chance to get to know you,” Abraham says._

_“You had your chance. When I was seven years old and begging you to stay? That was your first chance. You had 25 years of chances after that to come back at any time, but you didn’t.”_

_“You both moved away and changed your names, how was I supposed to find you?” he argues._

_“One, by not leaving in the first place,” Felicity yells. “And even once we had, you can’t tell me you couldn’t track us down. Sure, maybe you could argue that once I turned 14 and was able to erase our past from any known database that we became ghosts… but you had seven years to to figure out where we’d moved to and what our new names were.”_

_“You don’t understand,” he says. “Give me a chance to explain it to you.”_

_“No,” she says, her voice full of conviction. He’s heard that tone before — thought it’s usually a tone she reserves only for him, and even then it’s only when she’s really pissed off. There’s no changing her mind._

_“Klara.”_

_“Felicity,” she says. “You need to leave now. I do not want you around my children. I do not want you around my husband or my mother.”_

_“I notice you left yourself off of that list,” he says with a hopeful expression._

_Felicity sighs deeply and her shoulders slump, she’s lost the steam she’d had._

_“Baby, you don’t have to do this,” Donna says. “You don’t owe him anything.”_

_“I know,” Felicity says. “But he owes me an explanation.”_

_Abraham smiles and Oliver honestly just wants to punch him right in the jugular, but he’s not sure how that would go over right now. He can’t quite figure out what Felicity is feeling. Is all of her anger coming from the shock of her father suddenly showing up on their doorstep and she’ll forgive him with time, or is she genuinely angry at the man. As much as he wants to suit up and pay the man a visit in as the Green Arrow for all the pain he’s caused Felicity over the years, he isn’t sure that Felicity would appreciate it._

_He doesn’t want this man anywhere near his family, but he realizes that ultimately that won’t be his decision to make. It’s Felicity’s._

_“Let me take you to dinner tomorrow night,” Abraham says._

_“No,” Felicity says. “Dinner is much too long of a time commitment and I’m not even sure I’ll be able to go five minutes without killing you.”_

_“I would like the chance to explain myself… just the two of us,” he says._

_“Not a chance in hell,” Oliver interrupts._

_There’s no way that he’s letting Felicity go out with a criminal on her own — father or not._

_“Oliver,” Felicity protests._

_“Her security will be there,” he says, looking at Felicity while he says it. He gives her a look, letting her know that he won’t budge on this and she nods, letting him know that she understands._

_“Whatever you need to do to put your mind at ease,” Abraham says. “But you should know that I would never hurt her. She’s my daughter.”_

_“That would be a lot more convincing if you hadn’t already hurt her as badly as you have,” he says._

_“Coffee,” Felicity says. “Tomorrow at one at the corner of Main and Sheerman. I reserve the right to leave whenever I want.”_

_“Of course,” Abraham says. He moves to put his coat on, then digs into his pockets to pull out a business card to hand to her. “In case you want to get in touch with me.”_

_“I won’t,” she says, but she takes his card anyway, letting Oliver know that she may be more bark than bite._

_“Thank you, Klara,” Abraham says, stepping out into the hallway. “No matter what you may believe, I do love you.”_

_“You don’t even know me,” she says quietly, shutting the door and locking it._

_“So we are most definitely going to need to talk,” Oliver says as soon as the door is closed. Felicity falls against the door, exhausted. The entire encounter obviously took a lot out of her._

_“Later,” he adds, realizing that if he pushes her now, he’s likely not going to get very far. “I’ll go grab the girls. Dinner should be about ready.”_

_She nods as he makes his way down the hall to let Thea know that it’s safe to come out. When he comes back into the room, Donna and Felicity are both crying on each other’s shoulders._

_Oliver never thought that anybody would be able to hurt them as badly as some of the villains they’ve faced. After all, if they could survive Damien Darhk and all the pain that had come along with that, they could survive anything. Clearly, he was mistaken. He doesn’t know why he’s surprised. He, better than anybody, should have realized the utter betrayal of being hurt by your own family._

****

**2026**

“Are you sure about this?” Thea asks as they walk into the main lobby of the hospital. 

He’s impressed with Thea’s work. She’d been coordinating with the party planners for months to make this event happen. Despite the fact that the party planners had suggested multiple times that they hold the event downtown in one of the city’s more lavish ballrooms, he and Thea had been adamant. It’s important for the city’s elite to come to the Glades and see how most of the city lives. The event is about more than opening up checkbooks, it’s about opening up minds as well. 

Still, Thea has managed to turn the lobby into an elegant spot for a black tie event, without making it over the top or completely covering up the obvious need of the hospital for donations. He’s not surprised. Thea always does great work for him, which is why he puts her in charge of the charity events they plan. 

“Digg has all of our security team as well as half of SCPD here. They’ve been doing sweeps of the building all day,” Oliver says. “We are as safe as we are going to get.”

“Which is still not saying we are safe,” she says, giving him a pointed look. “But I agree with you. Cancelling the event probably would have set a bad precedent.” 

He nods in agreement. He isn’t any more comfortable tonight than she is. He’s terrified of something happening on his watch, but he’d promised this city when he first ran for mayor that he would not cower to the multitude of threats it faces, and he won’t start now. 

That doesn’t mean he won’t take every precaution to make sure that the people of this city are safe. As he glances around the room, he can already spot that Team Arrow is in place. Blayne Wittmore and Sean Tenner are already on the dance floor together, using their vantage point in the center of the room to keep an eye out. To the untrained eye, they just look like two young kids in love, but Oliver is hardly untrained. He can see the way their eyes scan the room, their bodies held in anticipation of a fight. 

In the corner of the room, he spots Tomohiro Kato holding a tray of appetizers. His right hand keeps moving to fidget with something in his pocket. Oliver wonders if this is his first time out in the field instead of behind his computer screen and he really prays that’s not true. They need a confident Team Arrow if something goes down, not a nervous group of children. 

Oliver takes a deep breath and tries to remind himself that none of them are kids. They’ve all been working on Team Arrow long enough to no longer be considered ‘in training.’ He has to trust them to do their job like they always do. He doesn’t see Miyo Kato or Riley Sharp anywhere, but he assumes that means they are already suited up and working on dismantling the threat. 

As he scans the room one more time, he catches Roy at the bar, cornered by Mrs. Smith. Oliver elbows Thea. 

“Looks like you might want to rescue your fiance,” he says with a chuckle. 

“Jesus,” Thea grumbles. “That woman has no shame.” 

He gives the room one final scan to make sure he doesn’t see any immediate threats, then takes a deep breath and puts on his best smile. The city doesn’t need him to be the arrow anymore, it’s time for him to be its loving mayor. 

****

“Big Russian guy just made his way upstairs,” Riley says, her voice coming over the coms. “Looks guilty as hell. You’re up, Green.” 

Miyo smiles, sometimes Star City’s criminals just make things far too easy.

“Canary, you’re in position?” she asks, drawing her bow. 

“Guarding your brother’s back you mean?” Riley says. “Yeah, we’re clear down here.”

“What’s the ETA?” she asks, slinking down the hallway, careful not to make any noise, lest any hospital staff hear her and decide to come looking. The last thing she wants is a civilian caught in the crossfire. 

“3 minutes,” Tomo answers. 

“Good,” she says, turning the corner and scanning for threats. The Russian man they spotted should be coming her way any minute. “The second you’re done, I want you out of here.” 

“You and me both,” he says. He’s always hated field work and she’s always hated him out in the field. Sadly, it’s not always avoidable as none of them are able to do the kind of things Tomo can with a computer. 

She hears footsteps headed her way. They are faint, somebody that knows how to keep their movements quiet, but they are there. When the man rounds the corner, he’s already got his gun raised and doesn’t look surprised to see her. 

“What? Going to tell me I’ve failed this city?” he asks. 

“Wrong Arrow,” she says, and doesn’t wait to release her arrow. 

She’s learned not to give her opponents enough time to come up with counter attacks. The best move she has is to hit them as fast as she can, as hard as she can. She draws and shoots off another arrow before the first one can even land it’s mark. It’s a good thing she does. The man is able to dodge her first arrow, but in doing so, he makes himself vulnerable to her second, which lands it’s mark right in his arm, severing his nerve making it impossible for him to shoot. 

“You’re a woman,” he says in shock. 

“And you’re an idiot.” She shoots off one of her specialized arrows, watching as it hits him in the chest and a metal wire wraps itself around him. 

“You’ll be happy to know that your new toy worked,” she says into the coms. 

“I’ll save my happy dance for when we’re all back safely,” Tomo says, causing her to chuckle. 

“Who do you work for?” she asks, the voice modulator making her voice a hundred times more intimidating than it would usually be. 

“You think I’m scared of you?” he asks.

“I think if you’re not, you soon will be,” she says.

“You think you’re so invincible,” the man growls at her as she grabs a hold of him and drags him into an empty hospital room. “There’s nothing special about any of you and you won’t be able to do anything but watch while your city burns.”

****

Tomo stands in the basement of the hospital, waiting for his computer software to upload to the mainframe so that they can stop the virus that’s been implanted there. Earlier this afternoon, while they were investigating the threat to the Glades Memorial event, Tomo had come across it. The virus that had been implanted into the system was scheduled to cause the computers to malfunction by 10pm tonight. While this might not have sounded that threatening in light of things like earthquake machines, biological attacks, or explosives… malfunctioning computers in a hospital was actually pretty terrifying. The virus could make its way through the entire electrical system of the building, shutting off power during surgeries, turning off life support in the ICU, deleting allergy information, changing medical charts so patients overdosed… worse, the virus was virtually untraceable so it could take days for the hospital to realize what was going on. 

Thankfully, his software could kill the virus, so long as it got uploaded to the mainframe in time. Which, pending anyone showing up, it should. They had five minutes until the virus went live and he only needed two minutes for the upload to finish. 

As he waits for the software to upload, he continues to work on tracing the virus back to where it came from. It’s tricky. Trickier than any other thing he’s tried to trace before, but he feels like he’s close. If he could just get past the… 

“Oh shit,” he says as he finally breaks past the firewall. 

“What?” Riley asks. 

“This is just the distraction.” 

He sets the tablet on top of the server, confident that the upload will complete itself and takes off running back up the stairs. Riley follows after him, but they are too late. There’s a loud explosion and the entire building shakes with the impact. 

****

Felicity is at her desk in the study, trying to get some work done now that the girls are finally asleep. The desk is set against a giant window overlooking the city. From here, she can see the Star City Bay as well as the Glades. 

She’s engrossed in the latest proposal from R&D, trying to determine if their newest prototype is worth the $45 million dollars it would take to put it into development. She has research, reports, and spreadsheets thrown all over her desk in a system that likely only makes sense to her. She’s staring at the latest email from Curtis, trying to figure out if he’s being sarcastic or if he truly thinks that they should go ahead and greenlight the project when she sees it. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches the explosion. She looks up in shock towards the Glades. She had lived in the Glades for many years when she first moved to Star City - back when it was still called Starling City. She knows exactly the area of town the explosion had happened at, and it’s right near the hospital. 

“Oliver…” 

She doesn’t even think, her hands have grabbed her phone and called before her mind can even catch up to itself. Oliver had been at a charity event for Glades Memorial. That was why the girls were spending the night with her, even though Fridays were his night. 

“Are you okay?” Is the first thing he asks when he picks up the phone. 

“I’m fine, what happened?” she asks. 

If this were five years ago, she would already be on her way to the lair. He’d be suiting up and finding whoever was responsible. Only, it’s not five years ago, and they aren’t responsible for solving the city’s problems anymore. At least, not in the way they used to be. 

Still, her fingers itch to hack something. To do _something_. 

“A plane flew into an apartment complex,” he says, sounding like he’s in shock. 

She can hear the chaos on his end of the line. There are sirens going off, people screaming, and what sounds like a fire. 

“A plane?” she asks, having a very visual flashback to a different terrorist attack that had happened over 25 years ago. 

“A two passenger one,” Oliver says. “We don’t know anymore at the moment. Police are busy trying to evacuate the building in case it collapses.” 

“And what are you going to do?” she asks suspiciously. 

“I’m the mayor,” he says pointedly. 

She knows that he can’t say anything else with how many people he’s around. She understands what he means though. He’s the mayor now, not the Green Arrow. It’s not his job to go after whoever did this. It’s his job to reassure the terrified city that they will get through this, and make plans to rebuild whatever is broken. 

“I’m going to stay here until we can get everything sorted out. It’ll probably take all night.” 

“Okay,” she says, still staring out the window at the black smoke that’s rising up. 

“I know I said that I’d pick the girls up in the morning, but with me probably being here all night…” 

“It’s alright. I don’t have any plans tomorrow anyways,” she says. “Just promise me you’ll be safe.” 

“Of course,” he says. “And Felicity?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Please let the police handle this,” he says, his tone knowing.

She hadn’t even realized that she’d already hacked into the SCPD scanners until Oliver said this. He must have heard her typing. 

She doesn’t say anything, so he adds, “For the girls.” 

Well, frack. They’d promised each other that they wouldn’t get involved anymore to ensure the safety of their children. She couldn’t go back on that promise, as tempted as she is to do something. She hates feeling useless. Hates that somebody else has taken up her mantle as Team Arrow’s tech support, but she knows he’s right. She can’t help. 

She shuts her laptop, and in that way that always annoys her, he somehow just knows she’s given in without even seeing her do so. 

“Thank you,” he says, and hangs up the phone. 

She turns on the TV to watch the news coverage, needing to see how bad the damage is. All work is forgotten as she gets lost in the news report. When her phone rings, shocking her out of her trance, she’s surprised to see that three hours has passed. 

“Hello?” she answers, always suspicious of unknown numbers. 

“Felicity Smoak? You don’t know me. I’m Tomo Kato. I…” 

“You work in my IT department,” she says. “Is there a reason you’re calling my personal cell phone at 1 in the morning?” 

“It’s not about work. Well, not about Palmer Tech,” he says. She instantly knows what he’s about to ask. She’s not an idiot. She made it her business to know every member of the New Team Arrow. In fact, she hired him on at Palmer Tech specifically because of his extracurricular activities. 

“You need my help,” she says. It’s a statement, not a question.

“Desperately,” he says.


	2. The Truth Will Out

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2026**

Felicity sits at her laptop in the Arrow Cave feeling a sense of Deja Vu as Tomo walks his team through a mission. It’s strange. On one hand, sitting in front of a computer hacking into government databases is something she’s intimately familiar with. That aspect of what she’s been doing the last 5 days is completely familiar and feels like coming home. On the other hand, Tomo is sitting exactly where she used to sit in their lair and he’s talking the team through the mission like she used to. Only, it’s different. The commands he gives out aren’t the ones that she would have immediately suggested. The voices of the team coming through the speaker aren’t ones that she’s used to. 

In any of the scenarios her brain has come up with over the years that might lead her to work on the team again, she’d never pictured doing it without Oliver, Digg, Thea, and Roy. Now that she’s agreed to help the new team on a temporary basis, she’s realizing just how out of sorts it makes her feel. 

Not to mention the guilt that’s slowly consuming her. 

When she had dropped the girls off at Oliver’s for the evening, explaining that she was going to be working late on a new development with her IT department, it hadn’t entirely been a lie. She was going to be working late on a new development. She _was_ going to be working with a member of her IT department. If he assumed that meant she’d be at Palmer Tech, then that wasn’t her fault. 

Except, lying by omission is just as bad as an outright lie, and she knows that Oliver will be livid if he ever finds out. However, if Tomo is right, and all of these attacks are aimed at taking out the world’s superheroes, Felicity can’t sit this one out. She has to help. Maybe ten or twenty years ago she could have justified that they would do just fine without mask protecting their cities. However, in the last decade alone they’ve discovered aliens, created metahumans, and uncovered mystical powers that cannot be explained by science. The military alone cannot hope to defend its citizens from the world’s supervillians. 

Not to mention, if there was really a greater power orchestrating all of these terror attacks, it wouldn’t be long before one hit Star City. In fact, it’s possible one already has. The police are reporting that the plane crash was caused by a drunk pilot, but Felicity isn’t willing to accept that at face value. Not yet. 

“Finding anything yet?” Tomo asks her, startling her out of her thoughts. 

“Not yet,” she says. 

She’s still pouring over police reports from all of the attacks, looking for common threads that may have been missed. So far, she’s found nothing. 

“Successful mission?” she asks him, realizing that the comms have been turned off. 

“They are on their way back now,” he informs her. 

She turns her head back to her research, eager to talk through the problem with him now that he’s no longer occupied. She’s found that it’s always nice to have somebody to bounce ideas back and forth with when she encounters a roadblock. 

“Typically, when you have terror attacks like these, somebody comes forward to take the credit,” Felicity says. 

“And somebody has,” he explains. 

“Just not the same somebody in each case,” she adds, to which he nods. 

“Douglas Farmer took credit for the Fawcett City bombing that killed the Marvel family,” she says. “His interview is hours long and all he really does is rant about how evil capitalism is. He’s a white, middle class American who’s never even left Fawcett City once in his life. His credit card history, bank statements, job history, and even his social media accounts have pulled up nothing. As far as the police are concerned, it’s a case of domestic terrorism and he had no known accomplices.”

“Dakota City was blamed on Islamic extremists who claim that they want to revive ISIS,” Tomo says, pulling up his own research on his screen. “The perpetrators were all shot and killed the day of the shooting by SWAT, but the police have identified them all. They came from Afghanistan and were here on a travel visa. Nothing indicates that any of them have been to Fawcett City where they would have worked with Douglas Farmer.” 

“Which is interesting, because Icon’s death two days later is being pinned on the Mara Salvatrucha, not the Islamic extremists who killed his partner,” she adds.

“A street gang did not take out Icon,” he argues. 

“They could have,” she says. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my day,” she adds when he shoots her an incredulous look. 

“Like your husband taking out Damien Darhk?” 

“Nobody is immortal,” she says. “Not even the immortals. And I’ll remind you that I’m not married and _the Green Arrow_ took out Damien Darhk, not Oliver.” 

“Sure,” he says with a knowing tone. 

She chooses to ignore the insinuation. She’s sure that Tomo knows each and every member of the original Team Arrow. If he’d been able to track her down and connect her to the team, he’s obviously skilled enough to track them all down. That doesn’t mean she needs to confirm any of his suspicions, in case they are just that — suspicions. 

“Where does that put us? Supergirl?” she asks. 

“Nobody has taken credit for what happened in National City,” he says. “They are saying it was an accident.”

“An accident where Supergirl just happened to be present at the exact moment the device malfunctioned? 600 people died, not to mention the long-term health effects that might show up. I don’t even think the particle accelerator explosion caused as much harm as that reactor, and the particle accelerator created metahumans.” 

“Are you two ever going to admit defeat and stop nerding out?” Riley asks them, as Team Arrow makes its way into the room. 

“If you’re going to be on Team Arrow, you don’t get to admit defeat,” Felicity says. “Not ever.”

“ _If_ I’m going to be a member of this team? You don’t get a say in that, Blondie,” Riley responds, her arms crossed defensively.

“I may not be a part of your New Team Arrow, but I was a part of this team when it first started,” she says, feeling the need to defend herself as everyone eyes her critically. “I was here back when it was one mask against the world and all the Arrow had was a military trained bodyguard and a tech girl. We’ve fought villains that you can’t even begin to imagine. If you are going to be a part of this, you don’t get to quit. You don’t throw in the towel. There is an entire city counting on you to keep fighting until you either win or it kills you.” 

“Damn,” Sean says. “Is OTA always so doom and gloom?” 

“Whoever is doing all of this? They killed Supergirl. They killed Green Lantern. They are killing off immortals. You have a bow and arrow. You won’t get out of this alive if we don’t get the upperhand,” she argues. 

Doom and gloom? Who does this kid think he is? Felicity is typically an optimistic person, but there is a difference between optimism and arrogance. 

“So, yes to the doom and gloom,” Blayne says. 

Felicity bites her tongue. It’s really not her place to boss these kids around. It’s not her team anymore, but she just can’t help it. They are so young and walk around like they are invincible. They have no idea how easily the world could fall around them. 

They’ve never had to fight one of the ‘big bads.’ Their world is taking out street criminals and occasionally going against one of the major crime syndicates. Their biggest battle might involve facing off against a single meta. They’ve never had to fight a soldier on mirakuru. They’ve never faced off against somebody like Malcolm Merlyn or Ra’s al Ghul. They may have had enough skills to take on a few ghosts, but they never would have been able to hold their own against Damien Darhk. 

“It’s still fairly early, why don’t you guys go train while Felicity and I continue to look through all of this,” Tomo says, clearly trying to ease the obvious tension in the room. 

Felicity watches as Tomo and Miyo stare at each other, seemingly having an entire conversation without saying a word. Finally, Miyo orders the rest of them to get changed and meet her in the training rooms. 

“They are good people,” Tomo says once they are out of earshot. “They just aren’t ready to admit that there may be something out there that is too big for them to handle.” 

“I get it,” she says, sighing deeply. “Denial is so much easier when you are faced with something you have no idea how to take on. But the city is counting on you all to defend it against whatever is coming, and if what they’ve done to other cities is any indication…” 

She doesn’t finish her sentence. She doesn’t even want to think about what might happen if these terrorists turn their eyes to Star City and decide to attack for real. 

“Do you think they have what it takes?” Tomo asks, his face showing genuine fear. She feels bad for putting it there, but she also knows that somebody on their team needs to take this seriously. Perhaps Tomo will have an easier time getting through to them than she has had. 

“Well, to be honest, there were many nights that I sat in that same seat you are sitting in, terrified that the Arrow wouldn’t make it back and each time he did. Every single time, he came back home. After a certain point, you can’t help but start believing that anything is possible. You stop worrying about the impossible odds and start thinking that there isn’t anything the Arrow can’t do… But Tomo, _they_ have to believe it,” she says. “And right now, all I see is a lot of ego and false bravado.”

****

_**2021** _

_“I forgot how exhausting babies are,” Felicity says as she crawls into bed, having just finished feeding Ella. “We are never having another one.”_

_“Grace never cried this much, did she?” Oliver asks, pulling her into his arms._

_“She did. We just have selective memory when we look back,” she says, cuddling into him. She lays her head on his chest and sighs as he begins massaging her scalp. “Don’t you remember how the only way we could get her to settle down was to put her car seat on top of the dryer?”_

_“I remember,” he says. “I guess looking back, it didn’t seem so bad.”_

_“Selective memory.”_

_He shudders as her fingers trace over the various scars on his chest. The two of them haven’t had much alone time in the last few weeks, what with Palmer Tech preparing for a major product launch, election day mere weeks away, Green Arrow business, and Ella’s recent arrival. They’ve had so much going on that they’ve been crashing as soon as they reach the bed most days._

_He’s missed her. It’s silly, he knows. They go to bed together every single night and wake up together in the mornings. However, he misses these moments. He loves getting to cuddle up with her in bed and talk about anything and everything. It recharges him when things get stressful; and let’s face it, things are always stressful._

_Not to mention he misses the sex._

_In the first two trimesters, Oliver had barely been able to keep up with her. She’d constantly been pulling him into empty rooms and secluded corners to take advantage of any spare minute. When she’d entered the third trimester, however, that insatiable desire for him had dwindled and been replaced with heartburn, constant fatigue, swollen ankles, and horrible back pain. The last thing on either of their minds had been sex._

_Now, however, as her fingers inch lower and lower, he feels that familiar yearning for her. As her fingers settle just under the waistband of his pajama pants, he knows that they are both on the same page. She’s every bit as tactile as he is._

_“We may not have a lot of time,” he says, his eyes going to the baby monitor on the nightstand to double check that both girls were still asleep in bed._

_“When has that ever stopped us?”_

_Felicity lifts her head up and meets his lips in a hungry kiss. His hands instantly go to her hips, grabbing her and pulling her in closer, until she takes the hint and straddles him. Her tongue seeks entrance and he immediately opens his mouth to grant it. They stay like that, kissing and rubbing against each other for several minutes. Kissing her is every bit as exciting now as it was 6 years ago, when they’d first gotten together._

_He could stay like this, making out like high schoolers, for hours and be completely content. The thing is though, he doesn’t have to. This beautiful woman is his wife, which means he’s allowed to have her — all of her — whenever he wants. She’s given herself over to him just as he gave himself over to her. Most days, he can admit, he still has absolutely no idea why. He’s learned to stop questioning her choice though, and just spend every minute making sure she never regrets choosing him._

_His hands move from her waist up, to her ass, then back around and up to her breasts. The second his hands brush over her nipples, even through her shirt, she ends up biting his bottom lip in pain._

_“Painful?” he asks, forgetting how sensitive she is when she’s breastfeeding._

_“Yeah. Sorry,” she apologizes. Whether she’s apologizing for accidentally biting him or the fact that she knows he has an unnatural fixation with her boobs, he doesn't know. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t mind a little pain every now and again, and he is honestly happy to accept whatever part of herself she’s able and willing to give him._

_“No boobs, got it,” he says with a smirk, moving one hand to the back of her neck to bring her closer._

_“Oliver,” she pulls away from him, before he can kiss her again, reaching around to grab his other hand that was currently trying to undo the tie on her pajama bottoms._

_“You know we can’t actually have sex… I’m still not fully healed,” she explains._

_“I know,” he says. “I heard the doctor.”_

_“You listened to a doctor?” she gasps, mocking him._

_“Funny. I only ignore doctor’s orders when it comes to my own injuries,” he says with a smirk, causing her to roll her eyes._

_“I can still go down on you,” she offers, her hands pulling at his pajama pants, trying to encourage him to lift his hips so that she can pull them off._

_“That’s a dangerous road to go down.”_

_“Only because you refuse to take without giving.” She gives him a knowing look._

_“I’ve never heard you complain,” he says, reaching up to play with a random curl that has made its way out of her ponytail._

_“I’m not that sore,” she says, and he can see her trying to justify them having sex in her mind._

_It’s honestly not worth it. As much as he misses her and wants her desperately, sex between them is rewarding because of the intimacy. There are other ways for them to have that. It’s not worth risking her getting hurt over a single orgasm… or multiple orgasms if their track record is anything to go by. They have years of sex in their future, three weeks won’t kill them._

_“Let’s just wait until we can do it properly,” he says._

_“Are you sure?” she asks, biting her lip._

_“I won’t be able to enjoy it otherwise,” he says honestly._

_He knows that he hasn’t always been the most selfless lover in the world. His days before Felicity were a whole lot of take, take, take. He only really bothered to worry about if his partner had gotten off if he was planning on seeing the girl more than once. Looking back, he was disgusted with his attitude. He hadn’t deserved any of the women who used to throw themselves at him._

_Now, he’s learned that sex is so much more than just getting off together. It’s a way to show his wife how much he cherishes her. He’s spent years perfecting his techniques and learning her body so that he can ensure it’s always good for her. Honestly, most days he gets more joy out of watching her come undone at his own hands than he does from his own pleasure. Not that he’d ever turn down an orgasm from her… she has after all spent just as long studying his body and learning what he likes, and Felicity is nothing if not an excellent student._

_Felicity crawls off of him and falls back onto the bed with a deep sigh._

_“It’s probably for the best,” he says. “We need to talk, anyway.”_

_He hasn’t said anything since her father left earlier that day. It wasn’t a conversation that he wanted to have with the entire family present and she’d already been upset and crying enough as it was. By the time they had finished dinner and had said goodbye to Thea and Donna, they were consumed with bathtime, bedtime stories, feeding schedules, and they just didn’t have the time. This was the first moment they’d had alone since, and talking about her father coming by was arguably more important than sex._

_“I don’t know what to say,” she admits, pulling her knees up and nervously playing with the fraying end of her shirt._

_“Your name’s not Felicity?” he asks, doing his damndest to keep it from sounding accusatory._

_This is the woman he loves. He trusts her more than anyone else in the world. He knows, if she’s kept this from him, there is a very good reason. There has to be. It’s that thought alone that has kept him from outright demanding answers immediately for the mystery that was her dad showing up and all the questions that had raised._

_Still, her name? It was the most basic thing. It was the first thing he knew about her. To think that he didn’t even know that, made him wonder what else she had hidden from him. It caused his stomach to twist into knots and he was trying not to let that feeling consume him. She deserved the chance to explain herself before he decided how betrayed he needed to feel._

_“Felicity is my name,” she says, adimately. “It may not have been the name I was born with, but it’s been my name since I was 7 and it’s the one that I chose.”_

_“Okay, but before that, you were Klara?” he asks, trying to figure out how all of these pieces fit together with what she’s told him about her childhood._

_“Klara Sokolski was the name I was born with,” she explains._

_“Is that Russian?”_

_“Polish,” she corrects him. “Klara was my father’s mother. It’s Jewish tradition to be named after a family member.”_

_“You never told me that,” he says, thinking back to picking out baby names for Grace and Ella. Should that have been something that he’d asked her about? He hadn’t even thought about it before. They had brief discussions on whether or not to give them a second, Jewish name, but had ultimately decided against it._

_“I think that particular tradition reminds me a little too much of my dad,” she says with a shrug._

_“So you were named after your grandmother.” He tries to bring them back on track. He knows this is likely going to be a long conversation, and if they want to get any sort of sleep tonight they need to stay focused._

_“I never met her. She died before I was born,” she says. “I can remember some stories my dad told me though. She was a holocaust survivor. She met my grandfather at Auschwitz when they were teenagers. They moved to America when the war ended and had my father.”_

_Wow, he thinks. He can’t even imagine. He may have survived some awful things in his life, but he makes no assumptions that he has any idea what her grandparents went through. Or what insane stroke of luck it was that both of her grandparents would manage to survive the deadliest concentration camp of World War II. So many people weren’t lucky enough to live long enough to see liberation, nor were a lot of those liberated healthy enough to survive much longer beyond that._

_He’s always thought of Felicity as his miracle, but knowing how easily her grandparents could have been killed and Felicity never would have been born… well he finds it harder and harder these days to deny the idea of a higher power — of fate and destiny._

_“I guess we know where you get your strength from, then,” he says, reaching out to stroke her cheek._

_She finally tilts her head towards him and rolls over to her side so that they can have this conversation face to face._

_“I guess,” she shrugs. “I like to think I get it from my mom.”_

_“Your mom is pretty amazing,” he agrees._

_“You don’t know the half of it.”_

_“Tell me,” he says._

_It’s been so long since they’ve had a conversation like this. They’ve been together long enough that there really isn’t anything that they don’t know about each other. At least, he’d thought that to be the truth. He can still remember the beginning of their relationship, though; those months they’d spent away, traveling the world and getting lost together. They would curl up together and share their secrets in the safe, judgement-free cocoon of their bed._

_He had loved those nights. He’d loved getting to hear all about Felicity’s life before she’d joined the team. He cherished every fact that she’d share with him, from the major ones where she’d explained in detail what her past relationships had been like, to the mundane, where she’d talked about how she’d spent an entire year wearing the same Wonder Woman shoes._

_It kills him that she’d never felt safe enough in those moments to tell him about this. To be honest about her father. After all, he’d been honest with her about so many of his own stories from his time away. Okay, maybe some stories had taken a few more years for her to drag out of him… which is why he can’t really judge her for keeping secrets. It doesn’t mean he can’t ache at the fact that somehow, she’d never felt comfortable enough to share with him._

_“Hey,” she says, her hands smoothing out the frown lines on his forehead. “Don’t go there.”_

_“Go where?” he asks._

_“That dark place in your mind where you think you should have somehow known, or that me not telling you is somehow your fault. Okay? I love you and I trust you. I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”_

_“Why didn’t you tell me before?” he asks, trying not to sound judgmental or hurt._

_It’s the one question that’s really been eating away at him, more than anything else. He knows that, no matter what Felicity tells him tonight, it’s not going to change how he sees her. That whatever has happened with her dad, whatever the reason Donna had taken Felicity into hiding — because Oliver knows that’s really the only reason you move away and change your name — Felicity will still be the same woman he married._

_She doesn’t answer right away, and he’d worry that he’d lost her if she wasn’t still turned into his body the way she was. He gives her time to think through what she wants to say. She’s always been good at providing him that courtesy and the least he can do is extend it to her._

_“I’ve been Felicity Smoak for most of my life,” she says. “When I introduce myself to people as that, it doesn’t feel like a lie. That’s who I am. Klara Sokolski isn’t me. I’m not sure if it ever was, even then.”_

_“And the rest of it?” he asks._

_“I didn’t tell you at first because it wasn’t important,” she says. “Well… okay, that’s a lie. I didn’t tell you because I was scared. With the way you were when I first joined the team, I didn’t know how you would react to finding out that you had a criminal’s daughter working for you.”_

_“Felicity,” he says, giving her an unamused look. “Both my mother and my father helped plan the Undertaking. I’m hardly one to judge based on the actions of your parents.”_

_“Maybe that’s true now,” she says. “But you didn’t trust easily back then, and you trusted me. That felt precious and I didn’t want to screw that up. I promised myself if it was ever relevant, that I would let you know. It just never came up. As far as I knew, my dad was in prison and had no idea who or where I was. It was a non-issue. Then, once we got together, it seemed too big. I’d kept it a secret for so long that no matter how it came out, it was going to feel like a betrayal. I’m sorry… I know we promised each other to never lie.”_

_“We did,” he agrees, unsure what else to say._

_He doesn’t want to let her off the hook and tell her that it’s alright. It’s not. They have agreed to full disclosure, and he doesn't understand why she wouldn’t have brought this up during any of their hundreds of discussions on honesty. However, he also doesn’t want to make a huge deal out of this, when he knows she’s already going through enough with the sudden return of her dad. He’s hurt, but it’s nothing he won’t get past. It’s nothing he can’t forgive._

_“Ask me whatever you want,” Felicity says, using her calm, reassuring voice. “I promise you that I won’t lie this time.”_

_“No more vague answers?”_

_“I’ll answer as honestly and completely as I can,” she says, putting him at ease. He knows her well enough to know that she’s telling the truth here. “Just keep in mind that I don’t have all of the answers. For a lot of this, I’m just as in the dark as you are.”_

_“Let’s start with your mom,” he says. “You said I didn’t know the half of it?”_

_Felicity nods and takes a deep breath, settling in for what he’s sure will be a long story._

_“My mom wasn’t born here,” she says. “She was born in Tolyatti.”_

_“Russia?” he asks. He’s never been, but he’s aware of the city from his time with the Bratva. He’s aware enough to know that it’s got one of the worst poverty indexes in the country._

_Felicity nods. “She grew up in an orphanage and when she was 16, she was brought here.”_

_“Brought here,” he repeats, feeling his stomach drop to his knees. He can picture only a handful of ways a young orphan gets brought overseas, and none of them are things he wants to picture happening to the woman who may as well be his own mother for how much he loves and adores her._

_“Your father brought her here?” he asks, hoping that Felicity understands what he’s asking, because he really doesn’t know if there’s a delicate way to ask if her mother was brought here as a sex worker, a mail order bride, or if she had been put to work some other way._

_“No,” she says. “She doesn’t talk about it. I mean, I get snippets and hints whenever she lectures me about safety and walking around the city at night. She’ll make allusions to how easy it would be to get kidnapped off the street and never see home again…”_

_He tenses up, immediately. If he didn’t want to think of Donna being taken by a human trafficking ring, he really doesn’t want the mental image of Felicity being taken. Digg and he had always been careful with her. They worked in the Glades so they knew the risks. They always walked her to her car at night and kept a close eye on her. Still, if her mother had given her lectures… how often had Felicity walked around the city by herself?_

_“Relax,” she says, rubbing his shoulder. “I’m right here, and I don’t live in the Glades anymore.”_

_He lets out a breath and forces the tension to leave his body. He can’t say he’s relaxed. No part of what he’s hearing is in any way relaxing. He’s tempted to suit up and go find every man who’d ever laid a finger on Donna. He knows he needs to at least appear relaxed though, or Felicity will be too busy worrying about him to finish her story._

_“My mom always tells me that my father met her while she was working at a club in Chicago…”_

_“You don’t believe her?” he asks._

_“There’s not a whole lot of research I can do,” she says. “Back then there weren’t computers and nobody exactly advertises illegal activities, so I can’t be sure.”_

_“Can’t be sure about what?”_

_“I think my dad may have bought my mom off the club owner. They were married three days after they met and I found his old bank records…” She trails off, unwilling to finish that particular train of thought._

_He closes his eyes as images flash through his mind of the various women who used to work for the Bratva. Anatoly always told him that they didn’t involve themselves in that particular trade. The larger criminal syndicates didn’t deal in human trafficking. However, that didn’t stop them from buying. Oliver had seen the woman employed at their casinos, restaurants, and brothels. They weren’t treated well. Many of his nightmares of his time in Russia revolve around the things he’d seen happen to those girls, many of whom couldn’t have been more than 14 years old._

_He really didn’t want to think about Donna getting pulled into a situation like that. It made him want to throw up even discussing the possibility that she had been bought and sold to complete assholes that used her for whatever work they wanted while barely providing for her basic needs._

_“So you’re Russian,” he asks, trying to bring both of them out of a conversation that they really didn’t want to have. For one, he didn’t want to have to confess how much knowledge he actually had on what happened to victims of trafficking. For another, Felicity certainly didn’t need to think about the horrors that her mother had endured, especially considering it was over thirty years ago and there was nothing they could do about it now. Finally, Donna deserved the dignity of them not sitting in their bedroom talking about what was likely, the lowest point of her life._

_“Part,” she says. “My dad is Polish, but more importantly, he’s Jewish,” she says, and her tone of voice when she says Jewish is so harsh that he’s sure he’s heard her wrong._

_“You’re Jewish,” he says, like she might need the reminder._

_“Oh no,” she says with a dark laugh. “My dad is a Jew, the way that Westboro Baptist Church are Christians.”_

_He’s still not entirely sure what that’s supposed to mean, but he lets it go for now and files it under things he’ll want to check out before Felicity meets with her father._

_“We went to Russia,” he reminds her. “Were you just pretending to not know any Russian?”_

_“Nyet,” she says. “That’s about the only Russian I know. That’s about as Russian as I get. Unless you count the amount of vodka I could inhale at my MIT days. Seriously… it was impressive.”_

_“I would never have guessed your mom grew up in Russia.”_

_“She used to have a really strong accent,” she said. “I remember being little and at the store we would get dirty looks from people, mostly the older ones who went through the Cold War. I think my mom realized pretty quickly that if we wanted to have a good life, we would need to blend in better. When we moved to Vegas, we practically lived at the library at first. For starters, it was air-conditioned and our first apartment was a hell-hole. She would sit there and watch all these dialect videos, learning how to hide her accent. Now, you’d never know she wasn’t your typical, white, All-American woman.”_

_She has a fond smile on her face as she talks about Donna. It’s rare that Felicity shows genuine fondness in regards to her mother. They haven’t always had a great relationship, and even now that things have improved between them, Felicity still acts annoyed with her mom more often than not. It’s nice to see her talk about her mom with a bit of pride. Oliver has always known that under all of the exasperation, Felicity loves her mother completely. She’s the woman who stayed, the one who worked her ass off to put food on the table, a roof over their head, and make sure that Felicity could grow up and have more. That she could go to school and become something more than another Vegas cliche._

_“Felicity,” he says, cutting her off just as she started to ramble about just how awful their first apartment was._

_“Yeah?” She looks up at him_

_“You weren’t born in Vegas,” he says._

_It’s a statement rather than a question. He knows it’s true, despite years of thinking otherwise. That had been obvious by the conversation with her father earlier today._

_“I was born in Gotham,” she says and his heart skips a beat._

_“Your dad is from Gotham?” he asks, his blood running cold._

_He’s not sure if there is ever a good place to grow up when your father is a criminal, but Gotham would certainly not be it. As awful as Starling had once been and still is at times, it has nothing on Gotham. At one point, during his short stay in Nanda Parbat, the league had talked about taking down the entire city in order to cleanse and start anew… it was one of the few times they talked about terrorism that Oliver found himself partially siding with Ra’s. Not that he would justify killing innocents, but Gotham needed more than anybody could provide and just may be beyond saving. Every mob movie, every story about corrupt politicians… it was based on Gotham._

_“Makes my neighborhood in Vegas look like Pleasantville, doesn’t it?” she says, trying to joke, but he can see it in her eyes. She doesn’t like thinking about the years she lived with her dad._

_Knowing that she’s from Gotham opens up a whole new set of questions, but before he can ask any of them, the baby monitor goes off, signalling Ella needs them._

_Felicity moves to roll out of bed, but he grabs her wrist to stop her._

_“You just fed her,” he says when she gives him a questioning look. “It’s my turn.”_

_She nods in agreement and burrows herself deeper into the covers and he knows what that means._

_“You can’t sleep yet, we’re not done talking,” he tells her sternly._

_“No sleep,” she says, as she yawns. “Just resting my eyes.”_

_He snorts at that, but Ella’s cries intensify and he decides to leave Felicity be. If she’s asleep when he gets back, they’ll just have to finish this conversation in the morning._

_He walks down the hall and enters the nursery, where he spots his baby girl throwing her head back and forth while she screams bloody murder._

_“Oh, Sweetheart,” he says soothingly, making his way over to the crib. He carefully picks her up, giving her a big kiss on the cheek before pulling her into him. “It’s okay, Daddy’s here.”_

_He walks her over to the changing table and sets her down gently and begins the process of changing her diaper._

_“You’ve got a good set of lungs on you, don’t you?” he talks to her. “Auntie Sara might try and make you the next Canary. You tell her, no. Your daddy says no more superheroes in his family.”_

_“Daddy?” he hears a small voice at the door. He looks up to see Grace rubbing her eyes, her hair all over the place, her favorite stuffed turtle in her arms._

_“What are you doing up?” he asks, worried. She almost never gets up in the middle of the night unless she’s had a nightmare._

_“She cries a lot,” Grace says, moving into the room to wrap her arms around his legs._

_His Gracie has always been a cuddler, but she’s even more so when she’s tired._

_“Oh, that’s what babies do,” he says, as he finishes up changing Ella’s diaper. He pulls her into his arms again. “Isn’t that right?” he asks Ella, kissing her on her head._

_“Did she wake you up?” he asks Grace, who just nods._

_She follows him over to the rocking chair where he sits down to try and rock Ella back to sleep. Grace crawls into his lap as well. It takes him a second to move them all around so that everyone is comfortable, but once he does, both girls curl right into him._

_“Is Mama sweepin’?” Grace asks, pulling her thumb out of her mouth in order to do so. They are supposed to be trying to get her to break that habit, but he’s too tired at the moment to deal with it. His priorities are getting both of them back into bed and it’s not worth the fight._

_“Probably,” he says, with a fond roll of his eyes._

_“She was sad today.”_

_“Mommy was?” he asks, looking down at her with a frown._

_Grace nodded her head._

_He hadn’t been sure how much of what had happened that evening she’d noticed, but apparently, she hadn’t missed her mother crying with her grandma. What else had she overheard?_

_“Did Mr. Abe-a-ham make her sad?” she asks._

_“How did you know his name?” he asks, looking down at her suspiciously._

_“He was at my school,” she says so matter of factly, as if there’s nothing odd about that sentence._

_His blood runs cold._

_Had Abraham really been at Grace’s school? And if so, when?_

****

**2026**

Oliver sits at the kitchen table with Grace trying to help her with her math homework. In a perfect world, one where he was still married, this would be something he let Felicity do. Not that he doesn’t love Grace and want to help her in whatever way he can, he just isn’t that great with school related things. He was always going to be the one that taught the girls how to ride a bike, hit a baseball, and throw a punch. Felicity would be in charge of the math and science stuff.

However, he’s not married anymore and the girls have been spending the last three nights at his place, so Grace and he are left with no other option but to get through this worksheet together.

“Don’t you have a calculator for this?” he asks.

“Mom says using a calculator is cheating,” she responds, sending him an unamused look that is so her mother.

“Of course she does.” He rolls his eyes, but there isn’t any malice behind it. In fact, it’s with nothing but fondness.

“Hey Dad?” Grace asks, looking up from her homework.

“Yeah?”

“If Mom gets married, will we still come over here?” she asks.

He’s taken back by the comment.

“Why do you think your mom is getting married?” he asks.

As a general rule, he tries not to use his daughters as a way to get information about what’s going on with Felicity. He doesn’t ever want them to feel like they are stuck in the middle. If there’s something he wants to know, he will just ask her. But he isn’t really sure how to answer this question without some knowledge of where this is all coming from.

Was Felicity in a serious relationship? Was that where she was really going each night? If it was, why wouldn’t she just tell him that?

“I heard Mom telling Grandma about a date she went on,” she explains, her entire body slumped down in defeat. “Hannah Archibald told me when her mom got married she got a new daddy.”

Her eyes are glued to the table in front of her as her finger traces the scratches in the wood. 

“Harper Grace, look at me,” he says. He waits for her to look up and meet his eyes. “I will always be your dad, okay?” He does his best to focus on relieving his daughters doubts and not the way his heart is shattering into a million pieces.

“Okay,” she says, but doesn’t look entirely convinced.

“Hey, _hey_ ,” he moves over to her side of the table and pulls her into his lap. “Nobody is going to take you away from me. Not ever. I love you, and I won’t ever leave you.”

“You left Mom.”

He feels as if he’s just been stabbed in the chest — a feeling he knows well. His heart stutters to a stop and he finds it hard to catch his breath. It’s been almost five years and still the pain of what happened between him and Felicity brings him to his knees. 

“I didn’t leave your mom,” he says, his voice just a whisper. He’s too emotional to try for anything louder than that. “What happened between us was complicated, but I didn’t leave her, and I won’t ever leave you.” 

“Are you going to leave Ella?” she asks, this time with a teasing smirk on her face that lets him know that his words were heard, loud and clear. 

“No, you’re stuck with your sister for the rest of your life,” he says. “Get used to it.”

She rolls her eyes at that. “She always follows me around.”

“Your Aunt Thea always followed me around, too,” he says. “It’s part of being the older sibling. One day you’ll appreciate it.” 

“Yeah you will,” Thea says, walking into the room, a stack of folders from the office in tow. “Little sisters are the best.” 

“See,” he says wearing a big smile. “I love my little sister so much that I let her live here.” 

“Only for two more months,” she says. 

“When you get married you’re going to move away?” Grace asks, and he can hear that fear starting to creep back in. 

“Not far,” Oliver says quickly, wanting to stop her from slipping back into sadness. “She’s just moving down the street.” 

“Yeah, you can’t get rid of me that easily,” Thea says, ruffling Grace’s hair as she moves towards the stairs to go change out of her work clothes. 

“Why don’t you go wash up. Dinner will be ready soon,” he says, picking her up off of his lap and setting her on the ground. “We can finish your homework after dinner.” 

Grace nods and runs out of the room. He stands up and moves to start putting together dinner for them. He’s always sure to give the girls a home cooked meal as often as he can, because he’s 100% positive that they live on takeout food at Felicity’s. Then again, maybe Felicity’s new boyfriend would cook for them. 

The thought of her with another man makes him sick to his stomach, but there’s nothing he can do about that. Felicity is well aware that she could come home whenever she was ready. Now, it appeared that she was ready, but his wasn’t the home she wanted to come back to. 

He grits his teeth and tries to suppress his anger, but if the harsh way he’s cutting the vegetables are any indication, he’s failing miserably. What he really needs is a good fight. He needs to take his bow out and put an arrow in something. Or someone, he thinks, picturing how satisfying it would be to put an arrow into whatever smug asshole thought they could have Felicity. 

No. _No_. Felicity is not his property. She’s not his to claim. He knows that. If she wants to go out with other men, he really has zero say in that. What he does have a say in though, is his daughters. He’ll be damned if Felicity allows some other man to come in and take his place. Not that she ever would, he knows that she knows the value of their girls having both parents in the picture. But damn, did Grace’s worries that he might leave hit him hard. 

Is that what his girls think of him? That he’s somebody that can walk away from those he cares about? That he would walk away from them? That he’d abandoned Felicity? 

“Woah, what did that onion ever do to you?” Thea says, walking back into the kitchen, comfortably changed into jeans and a t-shirt. 

He looks down at the onion that he’s been chopping and sees uneven pieces flung around the counter. 

“Felicity is dating,” he says, knowing that it will be explanation enough for her. 

She stares at him with a look of pity, but doesn’t appear to be shocked. 

“Which you already knew,” he says with a roll of his eyes. Did she not think that was something he would want to know? 

“Only rumors and gossip,” she says, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I would have told you if anything was for sure.” 

“Who is it?” he asks. 

He desperately needs to know, but at the same time, he doesn’t. He’s not sure if he’d be able to stop himself from doing something stupid if his current mental state is anything to go by. 

“Nobody in particular,” she says with a pointed look. “It’s just dating.” 

He lets out a breath. She wasn’t serious about anybody. That was a relief. It meant that he hadn’t quite lost her yet. However, the fact that she was dating at all was disheartening. He’d always assumed that once she was able to mentally put what happened behind her and be with somebody again, she would be with him. It’s the entire reason he’d agreed to space in the first place… why he’d agreed to the divorce she’d asked for. He knew that she needed time to collect herself and learn to breathe again. 

Now, it seemed that she was ready. It wasn’t a relationship she didn’t want — it was him. 

“Ollie…” He can hear the pain in Thea’s voice. She’s always hated seeing him upset, especially when she knows that nothing she says can help him. “I think it might be time to move on.” 

“No,” he says. His answer more forceful than normal. 

“I’m not asking you to get married again. Just date,” she says. “Get laid. Take a beautiful girl to dinner. Bring a plus one to our function next week…” 

“If Felicity is ready to move on, I can’t stop her,” he says. “But I’m not. Please don’t push this.” 

“You can’t be alone for the rest of your life,” she says. 

“I’m not alone,” he argues. “I have my family.” 

Thea looks like she wants to say more, but his phone goes off in the other room so he’s saved from any further lectures. 

“Can you finish cutting those?” he asks, pointing to the vegetables on the counter. 

He moves into the living room and grabs his cell phone off the coffee table. Barry is calling him. 

Barry never calls him anymore, unless it’s something serious. He knows that Oliver hung up his hood.

“Hello?” he answers the phone cautiously. 

“Hey,” Barry says, sounding defeated. “Have you seen the news?” 

“No,” he says, moving to pick up the remote and turn on the TV. 

He flips through the channels until he finds the local news. His breath catches in his throat as he sees the pictures of Wally West and Jay Garrick flash across the screen. 

“I couldn’t save them,” Barry says, choking on a sob. 

“A brutal murder occurred just a few hours ago in Keystone City,” the news reporter says. Oliver turns up the volume so that he can hear better. “Wally West and Jay Garrick were both found in their respective homes with multiple stab wounds. In a shocking twist, police have issued a warrant for The Flash, who they suspect is responsible for the vicious killings. At the moment, it appears The Flash has gone into hiding. For those of you who don’t know, The Flash is somewhat of a hero to the citizens of Central City…” 

“Barry…” Oliver doesn’t know what to say. 

“I didn’t kill them,” Barry says. 

It’s not that he honestly thinks that Barry Allen would be capable of killing anyone, let alone his own brother in law. However, he’s seen men do some dark things out of desperation, so he can never be sure. It’s always the ones with the purest of hearts who are most vulnerable of falling the farthest. 

“If you didn’t do this, who did?” 

“Somebody that’s determined to take out every hero in this country,” Barry says. “And I think I’m next.” 

****

Felicity is standing at Anna’s desk, reviewing the schedule for the day. She wants to get out of here early enough to pick the girls up from school today, since they’ve been spending the last several days at Oliver’s and she misses them. 

“Can you ask Curtis if he can meet me at noon rather than 3?” she asks. “Bribe him with takeout from that Indian place he loves if you have to.” 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Anna says. “As for your schedule…” 

Anna trails off but is giving her a knowing look that can’t be good. 

“What?” she asks, already knowing she won’t like whatever she’s about to say. 

“Mr. Greenbrier would like to schedule another dinner with you sometime this week,” Anna says. 

“I’ll pass, thanks,” Felicity says with a snort. 

“Didn’t go so well last time?” Anna asks, with another knowing look. 

“Let’s see, he ordered for me without even checking to see what I might like,” she says. “He changed the topic every time I brought up my kids. He got completely defensive when Oliver called to ask me a question about Ella’s medicine. Then, to top it all off, he was completely intimidated by my intelligence. He kept trying to one up me, like it was some pissing contest instead of a date. I don’t know why he would even be interested in another one.”

“Because you wore the red dress,” Andy, her other assistant, called out to her from his office. 

“So he wants me for my body not my mind,” she says, indignantly. “What a catch.” 

Andy comes out into the lobby to join the conversation properly. “When are you going to learn that most guys don’t appreciate the smart thing.” 

Felicity and Anna both gasp in outrage. “Do you like your job?” she asks him. 

“I love my job,” Andy says, not even phased by the glares they are both sending him. “I for one, _appreciate_ a smart woman. I wouldn’t work for this company if I didn’t. Actually, most men appreciate a smart woman. They think it’s cute when you babble on about science and technology. They don’t think it’s cute when you’re smarter than them.” 

“That’s misogynistic and frankly idiotic. Of course I’m going to be smarter than them,” Felicity says. “What do they think I’m the CEO of the most advanced tech company in the world because I’m an idiot.” 

“No, most men think that you got this job on your knees,” Andy says with a wink, causing both girls to gasp in outrage again. 

“Remember when we talked about that line you shouldn’t cross with your boss?” Felicity says. “You’re so far past that line you might as well be in China.” 

“You hired me for my brutal honesty,” he says with a smirk. “Don’t get mad just because I tell you what other people won’t.” 

Felicity groans in frustration. 

“Didn’t you have a proposal due two hours ago?” she asks. 

“Finished and on your desk 4 hours ago,” he says.

“And you don’t have anything else to do?” she asks. 

“Other than make you see you’re looking for qualities in guys that you’ve already got with the one you have?” he asks. 

She glares at him. She doesn’t need him to explain what he’s getting at. She knows he’s talking about Oliver and she’s made it clear on multiple occasions that isn’t an option. 

“Just go back to work,” she says. “Savannah should be sending you the latest projections soon to work on.” 

He gives her one last smirk, like he knows he’s made his point loud and clear and heads back into his office. 

“Why do we keep him around again?” Felicity groans. 

“Because he does double the work in half the time,” Anna reminds her. “And you know that he’s not entirely off base.” 

“Don’t you start too.” 

“Well we just don’t understand why you guys aren't together,” Anna says, pretty much confirming that, yes, Andy and her do talk about Felicity behind her back. “Oliver calls you more than anyone calls their ex. And not in a creepy, stalker way. In a, I'm not sure either of you know you're divorced way.”

“We have two children together,” she says, trying to justify the fact that Oliver is number 1 on her speed dial. 

“And everytime he calls, you light up like we just discovered a cure for cancer. You’re basically dating without the benefits. The incredibly awesome benefits if his body is any indication…” 

“Okay,” Felicity cuts her off before she can start talking about Oliver’s sexual prowess. “Oliver and I tried dating. We tried being married. It didn’t work. Love isn’t always enough.” 

“Well I have to believe that’s true because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody love anyone as much as Oliver clearly loves you.” 

Anna’s words cause Felicity’s heart to ache. She loves Oliver. She always will. However, she meant what she said. Love wasn’t enough. If anything, what happened to them 5 years ago pretty much proved that love was what tore them apart. 

“I’m going to get some work done before my 10am,” she says, changing the subject before she can start thinking about things she’d long ago pushed out of her mind. “Let me know if you hear from Curtis.” 

She walks into her office and closes the door so that she won’t have to hear whatever Anna and Andy have to say. She likes them both, but she needs a break from them. They are a little free with their brutal honesty at times, but she needs that in her life. Being the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world wasn’t easy. She was constantly encountering people who only told her what she wanted to hear. It was hard to find employees that weren’t too afraid of losing their job that they’d say anything to make her happy. On the other side of that, there were always the people that saw her money and power as something they could covet. The people who’d try to take advantage of her and manipulate her. She’d learned to navigate a Board of Directors who just looked at her as a naive young girl they could get to do whatever they wanted. She was strong enough to run this company despite the constant attacks being a strong, independent woman brought her. 

Still, it was nice to know that she had some people in her life that weren’t too afraid to speak their mind in front of her, even if she didn’t always like what they had to say. It was nice to have people who didn’t second guess her ability to run this company. It was nice to have people who wouldn’t just tell her what she wanted to hear and give in to her every demand. Those people — Curtis, Anna, and Andy — kept her grounded. Kept her humble.

The first thing she does when she turns on her computer is pull up the news for the day. She knows that Gabriella, the Head of PR, would have already let her know if anything big was happening that concerned the company. Still, she likes to know what’s happening out there and how it could affect them. She’d learned long ago that Page 6 gossip on her life has a big impact on how the investors view her ability to run the company. 

The first thing she sees is the pictures of Jay and Wally right under the headline, ‘The Flash: Hero or Murder?’ 

“God, Barry…” she whispers to herself, looking at her phone to make sure she doesn’t have any missed messages. She’d called Iris, Joe, and Caitlin last night to pass her condolences along. She hadn’t been able to get in touch with Barry, however, and that worried her. She was worried for him. She had a sinking suspicion that Barry was being framed for Jay and Wally’s murder by the same people that were conducting the terror attacks around the country. Did that mean Barry was their next target? 

She pulls up Central City’s Police Network to see if they have any leads on where Barry might be hiding, but finds nothing. 

“Think,” she tells herself, putting her head in her hands. There has to be another way to find out who is behind this all. Some big clue that she’s missing. 

If all of these events are connected — and she knows they are beyond a shadow of a doubt — then whoever is in charge is working overtime to cover their tracks, and they are good. The ghosts were easier to track down than these guys are. They were smart in having other organizations take credit for their work. What would that take? 

If she were spearheading a campaign to kill all masks in the country, how would she get these organizations to agree to take the blame? Or maybe they weren’t really taking the blame. Maybe they were actually the ones carrying out the orders. Some of those groups — Douglas Farmer for example — would likely have been happy to join just for the anarchy of it all. Others though… they would need more incentive. 

Money. 

It was the one thing that could unite the masses. Any of those groups would have happily carried out the attacks for a large sum of money. The only question was, where was it coming from? She’d already done searches on any accounts she could get her hands on and found no common thread. No account in common with any of the attackers. 

She begins digging deeper. She looks at everything, knowing that whoever is in charge is too good to leave obvious clues. She starts second guessing everything, convinced that they are hiding in plain sight, getting away with this because they’ve found a way to move money around through something seemingly innocent. 

And then, there it is. Clear as day. Tax refund checks... The amounts aren’t high. She’d have flagged anybody getting tax refunds of close to a million dollars. However, it’s the amount of refunds that they are receiving that catches her attention. Each group received a tax refund once a month in varying amounts for a total of one million dollars each over the course of the last year. 

How had she missed it before? 

She traces the money back further, trying to figure out where the refund checks had come from, but comes up empty. She’s able to determine that the money isn’t actually coming from the government — which is a huge relief as she doesn't even want to think about the implications of the federal government collectively paying off terrorist organizations to kill the nation's heroes. What she’s not able to do, is determine where the money is coming from. 

Still, it’s a pattern. A pattern she can trace. She quickly creates some code to go through the banking records of every known criminal in the city to see if she can find anyone who’s been getting faux refunds. 

She might not be able to find out who is behind this, but she may be able to figure out who is going to be responsible for the next attack. 

She pushes back from the computer, satisfied that the program will run without her constant attention and will alert her once it finds a match. She expects it to take hours, or even days. It takes less than thirty seconds. 

She pulls up the banking records to discover that an account at Star City National Bank has just received their 12th refund check in the last year for a total of one million dollars. If history is anything to go by, that means they have 1 day before the next attack hits. She hacks into Star City National Bank’s client records and uncovers a name — Benjamin Hawthorn. 

It only takes her 2 more minutes to uncover his criminal affiliations and what she finds causes her to drop her cup of coffee in fear. 

Benjamin Hawthorn is an officer in The Final Order. 

****

_**2021** _

_Felicity’s eyes move back and forth between three screens as she tries to figure out which of her investigations needs to take priority. On her laptop, she’s running a search on the anti-government group, The Final Order. This morning she’d woken up to an alert on her phone, indicating that there may be a new player in town — one that is very vocal online about their extreme dislike of the current political situation in Star City. The political situation being her husband._

_On her tablet, she has pulled up the SCPD’s examination of Christopher Eastbrooks. She’s had the interview on repeat for the last hour, trying to determine what exactly it is about his words that is making her hair stand on end, when Oliver and Digg believed he was all talk. Finally, she’s taken Oliver’s laptop and pulled up her father’s criminal history and is trying to determine if the lack of illegal activity in the last 7 years means that he has reformed or that he’s simply gotten much better at covering his tracks._

_“I thought we agreed to no work,” Oliver says, coming down the stairs having just put Grace down for her nap._

_“Is it technically work if I’m doing it from home?” she asks, smiling at him in the way she knows usually makes him cave._

_“That depends, are you looking into your dad?”_

_“Among other things,” she says. “Why?”_

_“We never finished our conversation yesterday, and I’m not going to lie. I’m a little concerned about your dad being back,” he says._

_She could have easily accepted that statement at face value, if he didn’t have that look on his face. The one that told her there was more that he wasn’t saying._

_“Did something happen?” she asks._

_“Grace told me that she saw your dad at school.”_

_“What!” she exclaims, immediately closing out of Easterbrook’s interview to pull up the school’s database to see if she can hack into their security cameras._

_“On a scale of one to ten, how worried do I have to be?” he asks._

_“I honestly don’t know,” she admits. “I’ve been trying to find the answer to that question all morning.”_

_He makes his way around the island and comes to her side, where he can see her computer screen. They stand in silence as she sets up her facial recognition software to scan the school’s video footage for any trace of her father. She doesn’t want to think about what it might mean if her father had actually gone to Grace’s school. They’d specifically picked that preschool for Grace because of the high security. Then again, if the way he’d paid off their doorman yesterday was any indication, her father knew how to worm his way into places._

_She feels Oliver’s hand on her shoulder and looks up at him._

_“I think you need to finish telling me about your dad,” he says._

_She nods, pushing the laptop away. The computer will let her know if anything comes up._

_“Well I told you yesterday that he’s from Gotham,” she says. He nods, encouraging her to continue._

_“I don’t know everything that my dad was involved in,” she admits. “My mom did a good job of sheltering me from a lot of it, and I only know what I later read from police reports. He conducted most of his business out of our home, however.”_

_She knows that she has no reason to be nervous around Oliver. He has enough of his own demons that he doesn’t often judge people for theirs. Last night, she’d expected him to be angry at her. She’d expected him to become closed off once he realized just how much she’d kept from him. Only, he hadn’t. He’d been hurt, for sure. She wasn’t stupid. She could read him like a book, and she could see the pain in his eyes that her omission had caused. However, he was more confused… more concerned… than anything else._

_Still, this is a story she’s never told anyone. She doesn’t even talk to her mom about any of this. They have both silently agreed to never mention it, and that’s worked for them for years. She isn’t really sure how to begin telling Oliver about her father. Yesterday had been easier. Yesterday, she’d mostly been talking about her mother. This was different. This was telling him all about the man who had caused Felicity to feel abandoned, unloved, and worthless for most of her life._

_“My dad, the one that I knew at least, he was amazing,” she explained, trying not to think too much about what she was saying, lest she start crying. “He treated me like his princess. He read me bedtime stories at night. He taught me how to build my first computer. To me, he was the dad everyone dreams of having.”_

_“I’m sensing a but coming on,” Oliver says._

_“But my dad wasn’t a good man. He wasn’t even a decent man. Looking back, I can see that now,” she says, wrapping her arms around herself as if holding herself together physically will keep her from falling apart emotionally._

_Oliver doesn’t say anything, and for that, she’s grateful._

_“My dad always had people over. Big tattooed men with guns on their hips, junkies, politicians, they ran the gambit. The men that came into our house… they weren’t good men. They were the kind of men that didn’t think much of women.”_

_“Felicity, did these men hurt you?” he asks and she can hear the hitch in his breath. The one that signals he’s going to go off the deep end and put an arrow through something if he doesn’t hear the answer he needs to._

_“Not me,” she says, closing her eyes and forcing her mind not to go there._

_“Your mom?”_

_She simply shrugs and holds back tears. She has no idea what those men did or didn’t do to her mom. She can hear their snide comments about her, even still to this day. At the time, she’d had no idea what things like ‘whore,’ and ‘slut’ meant. Looking back, she can understand that the odd, hand shaped bruising on her mom’s arms couldn’t have been from her latest attempt at cooking like she’d been told. She doesn’t know if her father was the one to touch her mom, or if it was somebody else. Either way, her father certainly knew about it and hadn’t stopped it._

_“One day, when I was 7, my mom went to the store and left me at home with my dad,” she says. She doesn’t remember much about her life in Gotham, but this day is one she won’t ever forget. “My dad had promised to watch me and my mom had no reason not to believe him. I was his angel. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me… We’d been building a computer together, when some of his clients showed up at the house. I was sent to my room to play while he took care of them. I don’t know what happened to distract my dad, I think he got a phone call or something. But my dad was pre-occupied with something and two men came into my room.”_

_“Felicity, you don’t have to tell me,” Oliver says, and she knows that he’s really saying ‘please don’t tell me this.’ He looks pained, like his heart has just been shattered in two._

_“They didn’t hurt me,” she says quickly, needing to reassure him. “I had invited them in to play a game while they waited for my dad to be done. Nothing bad happened. Except, my mom came home and found her 7 year old daughter playing ‘Life’ with two grown men alone in her bedroom. She freaked out. She told my dad that I wasn’t going to live her life, that he couldn’t possibly want that for me. I didn’t hear the rest of the argument. My mom sent me out of the house to go play with a neighbor. When I came back that night, my dad was putting his stuff into his car. I begged him not to leave, but he just got in the car and left. He didn’t even say goodbye. He couldn’t even look me in the eyes.”_

_“Your mom asked him to go,” he says, looking for confirmation._

_“I don’t know,” she says. “Last night was the first time I’d ever heard that he’d been given an ultimatum. Either way, he made the decision to walk away.”_

_“So your mom decided to move away?”_

_“Not at first,” she says. “We lived there for another month. But immigration showed up one day and took my mom. I spent a week and a half in foster care, thinking that I’d never see my family again. She managed to convince the police to let her go, and I don’t even want to think about what kind of convincing she had to do. The day I was given back to my mom, we packed up whatever would fit into a backpack and got on a bus to Vegas.”_

_“Who called immigration on you guys?”_

_“My dad,” she says. “The tip was anonymous, but I hacked into the system the second I learned how. My own father had tried to get my mom deported and didn’t even have the decency to come and get me so that I wouldn’t have to be in foster care while my mom was detained.”_

_“So your mom moved away and changed your names so that you wouldn’t get sent back to Russia.”_

_“Pretty much,” she says. “Since she wasn’t legally here, even after marrying my father, she couldn’t get steady work. She took under the table jobs and we lived in shady apartments that didn’t do background checks. When I was 14, I finally learned how to hack into government databases and was able to delete any trace of me and my mom from the system. According to the world, Aleksandra and Klara Sokolski don’t exist. I then was able to fabricate birth certificate and get us social security numbers so that my mom could apply for actual jobs. Things got better for us after that, not amazing, but better.”_

_“You never heard from your dad? Never looked into where he might be?” he asks._

_“I tracked him down when I was younger and discovered he was in prison. He’d been arrested for grand larceny, racketeering, blackmail of a government official, and kidnapping. He was supposed to be serving twenty-five to life. I didn’t bother looking for him after that, I knew exactly where he was.”_

_“You didn’t know that he’d been released on parole?” he asks._

_“No idea,” she says._

_She doesn’t think about how her mom had known he was on parole, that’s something she’ll have to ask her about later._

_The computer beeps, alerting them that a match has been found on the facial recognition. Felicity pulls the computer closer and they watch the video as her dad is seen talking to Grace on the playground. There’s a fence between them. Thankfully, he hadn’t found a way to her inside the school, but still. This is enough to make her see red._

_“I don’t want him anywhere near the girls,” Oliver says using his Arrow voice._

_She doesn’t disagree._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments of all kinds are always appreciated! 
> 
> Chapter 3 will be posted on Saturday :)


	3. Into the Fire

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2026**

“So we have a day to figure this out?” Miyo asks.

They are all sitting around the table in the lair, where Felicity has just let them know what she’s discovered. 

“More or less,” Felicity says. “The last deposit was made today at 8am. If the pattern continues, and I assume it will, that means we’ve got between 16 to 28 hours to figure this out.” 

“So the attack will happen between 8am and 8pm tomorrow,” Tomo explains. 

“Well where do we start?” Riley asks. “I assume that you bringing this to us means that you’re hacking has found nothing.” 

“I’ve got a name and an address,” Felicity says. “But…” 

“But what?” Sean asks. “Why aren’t we already suited up and tracking this guy down?” 

“Because I haven’t told you the most important part,” Felicity says.

Nobody says anything, they all look at her in silence, waiting for her to explain.

“The name I found — Benjamin Hawthorn — he works for The Final Order.” 

“What does that mean?” Riley asks, and Felicity can see the confusion on her face as well as Sean’s and Blayne’s. But Miyo and Tomo… they look like they’ve been struck hard. 

“The Final Order killed our parents,” Miyo says. 

“You guys need to be prepared,” Felicity says. “This isn’t going to be an easy shakedown. Hawthorn is likely to kill himself before he lets us know anything about the plan.” 

“The Final Order is supposed to be gone,” Tomo says, his voice far away, as if his mind is somewhere else. “Your team got rid of them five years ago.” 

“Welcome to Star City. Where nobody is ever as dead and gone as you think,” she says bitterly. 

****

“You called for your black driver?” Digg says, knocking on Oliver’s door. 

“I called for my head of security,” Oliver says with a laugh at the old joke. 

“What’s up?” he asks, coming into the office to take a seat across from Oliver. 

“I’m worried that somebody is going to try and take advantage of the situation in the Glades,” Oliver explains, putting down his folders to give this conversation the attention it deserves. 

“The situation being the plane that crashed into an apartment complex?” 

Oliver nods as he explains, “We’ve had volunteers working all week to clean up the wreckage so that construction crews can get in there, but it’s slow going. All of the residents have been relocated temporarily until the damage can be repaired.” 

“This sounds like something you’d usually have Thea work on, not your head of security,” Digg says. “What’s going on?” 

“I can’t explain it,” he says. “It’s just a feeling… like there was more to that crash than meets the eye.” 

“Well, there were 102 apartments in that complex. Only 63 of them were occupied, the rest were sitting empty,” Digg says, his face instantly changing from the look of a concerned friend to a soldier’s one. This is the man that spent years working by his side to solve the crimes against the city, not the head of security and friend Oliver had been used to these last couple of years. “Do you think they targeted somebody specific?” 

“Maybe not someone,” he says, his mind trying to make connections between the half formed thoughts and ideas. “I mean think about it, a plane hits a building with 157 residents and only the two pilots die. That doesn’t sound suspicious to you?” 

“It sounds like a miracle,” Digg says, his tone doubtful, although he has to admit that it’s more he doesn’t want to believe it than anything else. They’ve worked together long enough to trust each other’s instincts. 

“This city doesn’t see miracles. They see catastrophes and misfortune,” Oliver says. “And with all residents gone, that building sits empty and unguarded at the end of every workday.” 

“Which raises the questions, what is so important inside that building that somebody is willing to fly a plane into it?” 

Oliver raises his eyebrows. His question exactly. “You can see why I called you.” 

“This sounds like a job for The Arrow, not the mayor,” Digg says. “Is this your way of getting the team back together?” 

“No,” Oliver says, adamant about that fact. He’s not asking Digg to suit up, he’s simply asking him to do a little investigating before they pass the information on to somebody who can take care of whatever threat there is. 

Digg sends him a knowing look. One that says so much. If Oliver was so invested in investigating these kinds of things, why had he ever hung up his hood in the first place. 

The answer to that is both simple and incredibly complicated — Felicity. 

“Look at everything that’s happening John,” he says. “You’ve got heroes and vigilantes dying almost daily now. I can’t have that happen to anyone I care about.” 

“Is that why you sent Barry Allen out of the country?” Digg asks. 

“Too many people in Central City know he’s the Flash. They may have agreed to keep his secret once, but how long will that last now that the world thinks he’s a murderer? He needed a place to go while he figured some things out and came up with a plan.” 

“I sometimes wonder if we did this,” Digg says. “If by putting on masks and taking the law into our own hands, we escalated the problem. You inspired Barry to be a hero… Ray… Even the vigilantes in other cities weren’t around until stories of The Hood started showing up.” 

Oliver has often wondered this as well. If by becoming a vigilante, he didn’t inspire others to put on a mask. If he didn’t force criminals to become more extreme and dangerous in order to keep up. That thought used to keep him up at night, and it wasn’t until he confessed to Felicity that he started to see how wrong that was. 

“If I had never put on that hood, the world would still have aliens, magic, and metahumans,” Oliver says. “We didn’t cause this.” 

Digg nods. 

“I think we should put a security detail on the building for now,” Oliver says. “At least until we know more.” 

“There’s not money in the budget to hire anyone else,” Digg explains. “If I relocated men to the building, it will leave your security here rather thin.” 

“Do it,” Oliver says. “It’s only temporary. Besides, both Thea and I work here. If anything tries to hit us, they’ll have to go through the both of us first.” 

****

_**2021** _

_“I don’t want him anywhere near the girls,” Oliver says using his Arrow voice._

_Felicity doesn’t disagree. She doesn’t know a lot about her dad, but she knows enough to know that she can’t trust him. He is a dangerous man and she can’t have him around her children._

_She pulls her laptop closer and types in a few commands to make sure that the scans she is running will continue to do so without her._

_“If that goes off, forward any information to Digg and Thea,” she says. “We should get on top of that soon.”_

_“What is it?” he asks, glancing over her shoulder. “The Final Order?”_

_“Not sure yet,” she says. “Just pass it along, okay?”_

_She stands up and moves towards the door._

_“Where are you going?” he asks, moving to grab her wrist and stop her._

_She just stares at him. He knows exactly where she’s going. She’s going to confront her father. They were supposed to meet up for coffee today and she was going to make sure that it was clear — he was to have nothing to do with her family._

_“I’m coming with you,” he says, grabbing his coat from the closet._

_“Oliver, somebody has to watch the girls,” she says, unsure how to tell him that she needs to do this alone._

_Yesterday not included, she hasn’t seen her father for years. She knows that she shouldn’t have any desire to see him. He’s a dangerous criminal that abandoned her when she needed him. He broke her heart; caused her to doubt herself for years._

_She knows that she shouldn’t want him back in her life and she doesn’t. She absolutely doesn’t._

_Except… she can’t shake the feeling that she needs to see him. That she needs an explanation for everything that he’s done. She needs to hear him say that he hadn’t left because of her. That he has missed her every day since he’d left. That he’d never wanted to leave her behind._

_She shouldn’t need it. She has an amazing mother, a loving husband, and two fantastic children. However, she needs to know that her father thinks she is worthy. It’s the one scar that time and love haven’t ever been able to heal._

_She can’t have Oliver come with her. This is something that she needs to do for her own piece of mind._

_“We can call Thea to watch the girls,” he says, though she can already see that he’s resigned himself to letting her go without him._

_He can tell this is something that she needs to do alone, even if that kills him. If there is one thing that she loves about Oliver, it’s that he has always known what she needs without her having to say it. That he can read her just as well as she can read him._

_“He won’t hurt me,” she says, unsure which of them she’s trying to convince._

_“At least take security with you,” he pleads with her, and she can see how scared he is for her._

_“I will,” she promises, but he doesn’t look reassured. “He’s not going to do anything in the middle of a crowded coffee shop.”_

_“I’m not worried about that,” he says._

_“Then what are you worried about?” she asks._

_“I’ve learned that the worst kind of pain comes from words spoken by those who are supposed to love us,” he says._

_“Oliver…” she whispers his name as she leans into his arms._

_It would be so easy to give in to him. To stay in this apartment where it was warm and safe and let the boys deal with her dad. She can’t, though. Good or bad, she knows if she doesn’t at least hear what her dad has to say, she’ll never forgive herself._

_“I don’t know why I’m worried. You’re going to be fine,” he says, kissing her forehead, his voice suddenly lighter. She can hear how hard he’s trying though, he doesn’t believe it. “You’re the strongest person I know.”_

_“I’ll be back in an hour,” she says, giving him a goodbye kiss on the lips. “Keep an eye on my computer please.”_

_“I’m not allowed to touch your stuff,” he teases._

_“I’ll allow it this once,” she says, then heads out the door._

****

**2026**

“This doesn’t seem too easy for anyone else?” Riley says as they enter Hawthorne’s home, where the door had been left unlocked. 

“Are you really going to complain about not getting shot at?” Miyo asks, her bow drawn as she scans the room, looking for any sign of movement. “Because I happen to like your body bullet-hole free, thank you very much.” 

“Can you two not flirt right now,” Tomo says over the coms. “You need to find Hawthorn and get answers out of him as quickly as possible.” 

“Spartan and Red Arrow, what have you got?” Miyo asks her teammates, who had entered from the back door while they’d taken the front. 

“Clear on our end,” Sean says over the coms. 

“The oven is still warm,” Blayne says. A few seconds later she adds, “He hasn’t even finished his dinner. He’s gotta still be here.” 

“Or he saw us coming and ran,” Riley says, starting to lower her weapon. 

Miyo glares at her. How many times does she have to remind her that they can’t let their guard down for even a second. Not until they are 100% certain the threat is gone. Letting your guard down is how you get yourself killed in this business. 

“Tomo,” Miyo says, knowing that her brother will understand what to do without her needing to explain it. 

She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, focusing. She listens for any additional movement apart from the team. She listens for panicked breathing, squeaks in the wood flooring… anything to give her an idea of where Hawthorn might be. She hears nothing. 

“I’ve pulled up thermal scans of the location. I see you guys. Two in the foyer. Two in the kitchen,” he says, thinking aloud. “Shit. There’s somebody upstairs. First door on your left.” 

As silently as possible, Miyo darts up the stairs and finds the door that Tomo is talking about. It’s cracked open already. She uses her foot to push it open the rest of the way and enters, her bow going back and forth quickly, ready to shoot. 

Benjamin Hawthorn lies on the bed, sheets stained in blood. She instantly lowers her weapon and covers her mouth, willing herself not to get sick. 

“He’s dead,” she says. 

The entire scene is far too familiar for her. It’s the same way she’d found her parents five years ago. 

“What?” Tomo asks. 

“Looks like someone took him out,” she says again, this time her voice was stronger. It must be some sort of karmic payback that this man was killed in the very way that The Final Order killed her parents. 

“He can’t have been dead for long,” Tomo says. “Otherwise the thermal scan wouldn’t have picked him up.” 

“Well he’s dead now,” Miyo says as the rest of the team comes into the room. 

She can hear Riley’s shocked gasp. She’s always surprised by the sight of blood, no matter how many missions they go on. 

“Miyo,” Riley says, touching her elbow gently.

She turns to look at her girlfriend, but is confused to see the entire team staring at the wall in horror. Her eyes to the the wall and she can’t help but gasp at the blood there. 

The words spelled out in blood. 

‘The closer you get, the more will die,’ it says. 

She looks to the right and notices that the message continues on the next wall. 

‘How many deaths until the city no longer sees you as their savior but as their downfall?’ 

Riley’s hand around her elbow tightens, but she doesn’t pay it any attention. She moves around in the circle to see the rest of the message on the third wall. 

‘This city will burn to ashes and you won’t be able to do anything but watch.’ 

She sucks in a breath of fear. Her mind goes back to a week ago when a man had essentially told her the same thing. 

‘There’s nothing special about any of you and you won’t be able to do anything but watch while your city burns,’ he’d told her. 

“What’s going on?” Tomo asks. “Why does everyone sound like that?” 

“I’m sending you pictures dude,” Sean says. “This is about 10 different kinds of sick.” 

“What do you think it means?” Riley asks her. 

She shakes her head. She isn’t sure, but she’s positive that she won’t like the answer. 

****

“I won’t be in today,” Felicity says into the phone, adding in a fake cough for show. “I’m sick.” 

“You have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Fox,” Anna says. “What am I supposed to tell him?” 

“Promise him 10% off of the order and that I’ll fly to Gotham for the makeup meeting I’m missing today,” she says. 

She honestly doesn’t care what Anna tells him. She has more important things to worry about. It’s been 24 hours since the last deposit was made into Benjamin Hawthorn’s account and the attack could happen at any moment. Despite being up all night with Tomo digging through what little evidence they could find at Hawthorn’s home, they’ve found nothing. 

“Okay, well feel better,” Anna says and hangs up the phone. 

“You’d think with a brain as smart as yours, you’d be able to come up with a more believable cover story,” Tomo says with a laugh. 

“If you think that was bad, you should have heard the Arrow’s cover stories back in the day,” she says with a fond roll of her eyes. “Where are we at?” 

“Well, I’ve connected 5 unsolved murders to Hawthorn and sent the information to the SCPD,” he says with a smile that is completely fake. 

“There has to be something!” she cries out, the exhaustion of no sleep mixing with the frustration of meeting a dead end catching up to her. 

“All of the physical evidence that they got from the house is from previous jobs,” Tomo says. “And his computer doesn’t have anything regarding The Final Order on it. It’s all meaningless emails between friends, vacation photos, architecture, and porn.” 

“Architecture?” she asks. 

“Yeah, he’s got a bunch of blueprints in a folder. It looks like he was planning on building a house or something.” 

“Let me see,” she says, rolling over to his desk and pulling the keyboard in front of her. 

The folder contains contracts with building companies for what looks like a property out in the woods that Hawthorn was looking at buying. There are various blueprints that the company had sent over for him to get an idea of what he’d want in a home. As she clicks through the blueprints, she realizes that Tomo is probably right, there’s nothing here. 

She opens up the last blueprint just to be sure and she gasps in shock. She knows this building with barely a glance. The public officials in this town have been targeted enough times over the years that she knows the layout for these buildings by heart — especially this one. 

“This is the mayor’s office,” she says, a feeling of dread starting to take over. 

“Why would he need a blueprint of the mayor’s office if he’s looking to build a house?” Tomo asks, confused. 

Felicity pays him no attention. She sets up a scan on the computer for anything mentioning ‘Oliver’ or ‘Queen.’ 

The search pulls up several protected files that she’s quickly able to hack into. There is a copy of Oliver’s schedule, photos of people who work in the mayor’s office, a list of security codes and passwords, as well as hundreds of different files all pointing to one undeniable truth — They are planning on killing the mayor. They are going to kill Oliver. 

She picks up the phone to call Oliver and warn him, but the phone barely rings before it goes straight to voicemail. 

“Damn it!” she yells, her heart racing a mile a minute. She tries to call him again, but the call goes directly to voicemail this time, as if his phone has been shut off. 

“Felicity,” Tomo says, pointing at the screen where he’s pulled up the local news. 

The headline reads: Breaking News — Hostage Crisis at City Hall. 

“Oh god, Oliver…” 

****

_**2021** _

_When Felicity walks into the coffee shop a good half hour before she’s supposed to meet her father, she expects to have plenty of time to calm herself down. She’d decided to walk there instead of driving, hoping that the fresh air and the 15 block walk would give her time to figure out what she wanted to say to her father._

_It hadn’t, in fact, done anything but intensify the rage she felt at the audacity of her father showing up at Grace’s school, and increase her nervousness at seeing the man who’d left her all those years ago._

_She wanted to channel her inner-Hood and put the fear of god into him so that he never came back again. So that he’d never bother her family. She never wanted her daughters to feel the utter despair at realizing your own flesh and blood — somebody who is supposed to love you unconditionally — didn’t find you worth staying around for. She wanted to protect them._

_However, she’s not sure she can even protect herself. Not from the emotional pain. She hadn’t been lying to Oliver. She has brought security with her and she really doesn’t think he will be stupid enough to try anything in such a public setting. She is perfectly safe — physically._

_No. She is worried about her own heart._

_So when she walks into the coffee shop, it is with every intention of spending the next half hour pulling herself together and at least appearing to be in control of the situation. She doesn’t expect her father to already be here._

_“Klara, you made it,” he calls out to her, sending her a wave and a friendly smile that is too familiar to be comfortable._

_It is the same smile he used to give her when he’d tuck her in at night. The one he’d give her when she built that computer by herself for the first time. The one he gave her each and every day for the first seven years of her life. The smile that said having her in his life made him the happiest man in the world._

_That smile had been full of lies then, she can’t let herself believe it is real now._

_“Don’t call me that,” she says immediately, determined not to let him in, regardless of how much the little girl inside of her just wants his acceptance and love._

_“You were named after your grandmother,” he says with a sad smile. “Do you remember? She was an exceptionally strong woman and that is what we wanted for you. Felicity… it has no family connection.”_

_“Felicity means happiness and good fortune,” she says, glaring at him. Because honestly, how dare he come into her home and look down his nose at who she’s become. How dare he show up for this coffee and immediately start criticizing her for not wanting to be a part of his family when he’d been the one to abandon her mother and her back then._

_“It has a family connection, just not yours,” she says. “Mom gave it to me when we left because she said I was the only good thing she’d ever had in her life. She told me that despite all the things she went through, that she wouldn’t change a minute of it because it brought me to her. She says I was her karma. Mom is my family, not some dead woman who gave birth to a man I barely know.”_

_He grits his teeth and she can tell that her words have angered him, but he doesn’t react any more than that._

_“Alright, Felicity it is,” he says. “Please sit down.”_

_“No,” she says, not caring that she’s likely making a scene that will end up on TMZ within the hour._

_Her entire body is poised to run. Even being in the same room as him makes her skin crawl with nerves. She’d waited 25 years to hear from him, and now that he’s here, she just wants him to go away. His being here is destroying all of the progress she’s made in the last several years. When he’s here, it’s hard to feel like Felicity Queen, loving wife, wonderful mother, successful businesswoman, and bad ass crime fighter. With him here, she feels like the little girl that nobody would ever love._

_She feels small and helpless_

_“I can’t do this,” she says, taking a step back. “I thought I could. I thought we could sit here and talk, but I can’t. Turns out, even after 25 years to get over it, seeing you still hurts like hell.”_

_“I never wanted to hurt you,” he says, and he sounds so sincere._

_Felicity finds herself for a second thinking about how easy it would be. How nice it would be to take his words at face value and accept him back into her life. When she looks at her father, she can’t help but remember how happy they used to be._

_That was a lie though. They’d never really been happy, she just never knew any different._

_She is old enough now… She has her own loving family to look at as an example… she can see the signs of domestic abuse in the bruises her mother used to wear. She understands now the danger he’d willingly brought into their home with the kind of men that he’d let openly in without a second thought. She can see the darkness he’d always held behind his smile._

_She can’t allow herself to fall in his arms. She has her own family to think about now. They deserve the world and she can’t allow her father any part of that. She can’t risk letting anything dark touch their perfect corner of the world._

_‘I never wanted to hurt you’. The words repeat in her head, but they don’t make any sense. If he hadn’t wanted to hurt her, why would he have left?_

_“What did you expect would happen when you abandoned your family?” she asks, hating how her voice falters over the words._

_“I didn’t have a choice,” he says. “You need to give me a chance to tell you my side of the story.”_

_She glares at him, wishing she had some cool-meta powers that could kill him with a single glance. His statement alone shows just how little he knows her. She doesn’t need to do anything and doesn’t appreciate being told so, especially by a man who had no right to make demands of her._

_“Don’t tell me what I need,” she says, her voice filled with venom. “I came here for one reason, and one reason alone. I’m here to tell you that you are not to go to Grace’s school again.”_

_“I didn’t—”_

_“Don’t even try to lie about it, she says, cutting him off with a wave of her hand._

_This man paid off your doorman and bypassed your security to come to your home unannounced, she reminds herself. This man went to Grace’s school and talked to her without their permission or knowledge. This man needs to be dealt with the way any threat is dealt with._

_Swiftly._

_She takes a deep breath and stands up straighter, determined to appear strong. Then she thinks, what would the Arrow do?_

_Find people and puts the fear of god in them?_

_“I saw you on the security camera. If you go near my daughter again — If you go near any member of my family, including mom — I will make sure you regret it. I will get you tossed back into jail faster than you can blink. I’ll make sure your fingerprints are found on thousands of cold cases across the country. I’ll put you on the FBI’s most wanted list, then make sure everyone thinks you’re a snitch so you can’t get any of your mob friends to help you.”_

_There. That was sufficiently terrifying right? Or had her voice been too shaky and uncertain to come off as believable?_

_“I can only imagine what your mother has told you to make you hate me so,” he says, barely reacting to her threat._

_“She didn’t have to tell me anything,” she says. “None of your court documents are sealed.”_

_“My little girl,” he says with a warm smile that’s so out of place in the conversation._

_She’s trying hard to keep herself together. She’s actively having to resist the urge to take the butter knife on the table in front of him and jamming it into his eyes. She’s having to dig her fingernails into her palms to keep from shaking uncontrollably. She’s having to bit her lower lip to stop from sobbing._

_How was he so calm?_

_Because he doesn’t love you. He doesn’t really care, she reminds himself._

_“I’m not sure why I ever worried about you,” he says. “You’re clearly able to take care of yourself. You have no idea how happy that makes me.”_

_“You say that like you’re proud.”_

_“I am.”_

_“You don’t get to take credit for that,” she says. “Any strength I have is in spite of you.”_

_“I made an impossible choice,” he says, folding his arms on the table and staring at her in a way that is oddly familiar._

_It’s guilt, but it’s more than just that. It’s longing. It’s eyes that beg for forgiveness while still not believing he is worthy of it. It’s soul crushing remorse._

_It’s the look she’s seen in Oliver’s eyes time and time again, but never as bad as when he’d first returned from Nanda Parbat after becoming Al Sah-him._

_Her dad? He looks even more remorseful than that._

_“Perhaps it was the wrong one,” he says sadly. “However, when I look at you, now? When I see the wonderful young woman you’ve become? I wonder if you would have grown up to be this strong if I hadn’t left you? If I hadn’t forced you to rely on yourself at such a young age…”_

_“So now you’re happy you left?” she scoffs. It’s far easier to be indignant and argumentative than it is to try and analyze what it is he’s saying._

_She doesn’t want to understand it. If she understands it, then she might have to forgive him. She’s not ready for that. Not yet._

_“I’m not happy that I didn’t get to see you grow up,” he says. “But it was much better than the alternative: you ending up in a body bag.”_

_“What are you talking about?” she asks, truly shocked._

_She’s had an entire night to think over what it was her dad was doing back and what crazy excuse he would have for his absence. She’d come up with hundreds of scenarios. In none of them, had she considered the possibility that he’d left for their own safety. Her father was a criminal, he was an awful man. Why would she ever assume that his actions could be in any way construed as selfless._

_No. She refused to accept it._

_“You don’t leave the mob in anything but a body back. Your mom knew that. She asked me to choose anyway.”_

_“That’s a nice story,” she says. “It would be more believable if I didn’t know you called immigration on us.”_

_“I didn’t—”_

_“Stop,” she cuts him off. “You keep trying to lie to me. I’m going to tell you right now that I don’t do well with lies. The anonymous tip that came in was from your phone number.”_

_He looks shocked that she’d been able to figure that out._

_“If it’s on the internet, I can find it,” she says._

_“I needed you both out of Gotham,” he says. At least this sounds like it could be true._

_“Picking up the phone and telling us was too difficult for you?”_

_“Your mother wouldn’t answer any of my calls and she called the police on me anytime I tried to come to your house,” he explains. “I wasn’t left with a lot of options.”_

_“How was us getting deported to Russia even an option?”_

_“Russia would have been better than Gotham, trust me on that,” he says._

_She wants to argue with him on that, but she knows that he’s probably right. Especially back then, before they had Batman to help clean up some of the streets._

_“They didn’t send us back to Russia,” she explains, trying not to allow herself to get too emotional._

_Some nights, she swears she can still hear the pounding of the door as officers dragged her mother out of the house. She can still picture the social worker and that stupid doll she’d tried to give Felicity to make her feel better about them taking her mom. She can still hear them telling her that she was going to stay with some nice people while her mother was screaming her name repeatedly._

_Even with all the awful things that have happened to her as a result of her nighttime activities fighting crime, that moment was still the worst moment of her life. It was the moment when she realized that her father really was gone for good and wasn’t coming to rescue her, and that her mother couldn’t protect her from everything._

_“Did you even know that I got put into the system and mom was detained for 10 whole days before they let her go?” she asks._

_His grimace tells her everything she needs to know. It confirms the suspicion she’s had for years._

_“You knew, you just didn’t care. That’s great.”_

_“I couldn’t afford to care,” he argues. “Caring is the entire reason Falcone put a hit out on your both.”_

_“Falcone?” she asks, her tone shocked. “Carmine Falcone? The mob boss?”_

_“I know that you must have felt so alone, so abandoned,” he says. “But you were safe there. That family wasn’t so bad. They could give you things your mom and I never could. You had two boys to play with, a backyard with an actual play set, and home cooked meals every night. Nothing like the stuff your mom used to make.”_

_“How do you know that?” she asks, her voice catching in her throat._

_It can’t be true. There is just no way that her dad is telling her the truth. He is a criminal, lying is in his blood. He didn’t leave them to protect them. There was never a hit out on them, that stuff only happens in movies._

_As opposed to the things you deal with every night when your husband puts on a green mask and plays superhero? She thinks but quickly pushes it down._

_She can’t afford to be caught off guard. She can’t afford to let him in only to be hurt again. She stands so much more to lose this time around._

_“Felicity, you’re the most important thing in my world,” he explains. “I might not have been in the running for father of the year. A good father would never have put his family in a position where their lives were at risk. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the mistakes I made in the past. I was a loving father, though. Of course I checked in on you. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.”_

_Felicity has had her share of experience dealing with men showing their love in inappropriate ways. She’s married to Oliver Queen — a man who once thought that joining the League of Assassins was an act of love. She could list all of the poor decisions he’s made in the name of love over the years… it’s a long one. But the fact is, she gets it. She doesn’t want to get it, but she gets it. Sometimes you get put in a position where you don’t know how to protect the ones you love and still be with them at the same time._

_She wants to hate him, and she still does… mostly. But she does get it. In his own unique way, he loved her._

_“Felicity, sweetheart, will you please just sit,” he says._

_She hadn’t even realized she’d still been standing this entire time. She debates sitting down and ordering a coffee. Tries to figure out if hearing him out while he tells her what he’s been up to the last 25 years will help her come to terms with him being here now._

_She just can’t. Already, what she’s heard is too much to process. She can’t imagine hearing more._

_“I’m done for today,” she says._

_“Please don’t leave.”_

_His eyes are pleading with her and it would be easy to give into that._

_“I need some time to think.”_

_“Does that mean that I can see you again?” he asks, looking hopeful._

_God, what she would have given for that eagerness to see her 25 years ago. How desperate she’d been to see him again. Now, she didn’t know what to think. She wasn’t sure how to feel. The longer she stood there, the more she wanted to forgive him; and she wasn't ready for that yet. She needed some space to sort through everything he’d said and figure out how much of it was real._

_“It means I’ll think about it,” she says._

_“I guess that’s the best I can hope for.”_

_“It is,” she replies, honestly. “In the meantime—”_

_“In the meantime, I won’t see Grace again,” he finishes the sentence for her. She’s glad to know that at least that sunk in. “I apologize. I overstepped.”_

_“Violating my privacy like that? Bypassing our doorman? Those aren’t actions that lead me to trust you.”_

_“I will earn back your trust,” he says._

_“Good,” she says. “Because I was dead serious about those threats.”_

_“I know. You are your parents’ child.”_

_She moves towards the door, ready to head back home. She was sure by now that Oliver was ready for an extra hand with the girls. She makes it three steps before turning back around to say something._

_“In the name of trust… I should tell you that I’m running background checks on you to find out what you’ve been up to since you’ve gotten out on parole.”_

_“You won’t find anything,” he says confidently. “I haven’t been part of that life in years. I’m a changed man… I wouldn’t have come to you again if I wasn’t. I wouldn’t risk your safety like that.”_

_“If I do find something...” she begins, ignoring his reassurances. No matter what he says, she’ isn’t ready to accept anything he says without some hard proof of her own. The trust isn’t there… not yet. Maybe one day…_

_“If I do find something, this arrangement is off,” she says._

_“Okay,” he agrees. “You deserve that much.”_

_“I deserve more than just that,” she scoffs. “But I’m willing to consider overlooking your past. Don’t disappoint me again.”_

_“I won’t,” he promises. “So, we can do this again?”_

_She pauses, staring at him, trying to figure him out. She wants to trust him. She wants to see him again and rebuild their relationship… But she knows how stupid that sounds._

_“Maybe,” she responds, though she’s sure that even he knows her answer is already a yes._

****

**2026**

Oliver stands outside of City Hall where almost the entire city’s police have surrounded the building, trying to figure out a way inside without hurting any of the hostages. He wants to kick himself for leaving to go check out a lead Digg had found at the apartment complex in the Glades. He was supposed to be inside right now. He should be in there where he could actually do some good, rather than out here where he was utterly useless. 

He’d told Digg to relocate some of their security to the Glades even though it would leave them vulnerable. He’d promised him that he would be there to keep his people safe if anything were to happen. He’d never thought that it actually would. 

“What do we know?” he asks Commissioner Lopez, who had actually left his office for once to oversee the crisis. This was too major to be able to afford any mistakes. 

“The negotiator is trying to get them on the phone to figure out what their demands are, but so far, they haven’t had any luck,” Lopez says. 

He does his best to swallow his panic. Thea is inside, but she can take care of herself, he knows that. His entire staff is inside, but Thea won’t let anything happen to them. He knows this. Still, his hands won’t stop shaking. 

He glances down at his phone for the hundredth time, but it’s inexplicably shut off and won’t work. He’s not stupid enough to think that it’s a coincidence. The same thing has happened to John’s phone as well. 

He wants to call Thea. He’d been in the process of borrowing somebody else’s phone to do just that when Lopez had reminded him that calling his sister could bring more attention to her and put her in danger. 

Digg comes up behind him and whispers into his ear, “I’ve found a way in.” 

Oliver’s eyes scan the scene, determining if anyone is watching them and if anyone would notice their absence. Once he determines that they are in the clear, he nods to Digg. 

The two of them sneak off through the crowd of police officers, hoping that the overall chaos of the situation will mean that nobody’s eyes stay on them long enough to realize what they are doing. 

Once they make it past the crowd and into an empty alleyway, Oliver turns to him. 

“What’s the plan?” he says. 

“If we can get onto the roof, there are only two armed men there. We should be able to take them out quickly without raising any alarms. From there, we can get into the building.” 

Oliver nods along, comfortable enough with the plan. As far as rescue missions go, this is fairly straightforward. 

“We need weapons,” Oliver says. 

“Already on it,” Digg says, pulling a gun out of his jacket. “I know you’re more comfortable with a bow and arrow, but —” 

“This will do,” he says, taking the gun and tucking it into his waistband. 

He moves over to the fire escape and is about to jump up to pull it down, when the sound of static and a familiar voice stops him. 

“John?” Thea’s voice, barely a whisper, can be heard. 

“What is that?” Oliver asks. 

Digg pulls his walkie out and looks at it in surprise. “I haven’t been able to get through to anybody,” he tells him before putting the walkie by his mouth. “Thea?” 

“John.” Her voice sounds relieved, though it’s hard to tell with how quietly she’s talking. “They’ve taken out most of the security here,” she explains. 

“How many of them are there?” John asks. 

“There’s ten on this floor alone. I don’t know how many are downstairs,” she says. “I can’t taken them on my own without somebody getting hurt.” 

“We’re on our way,” John reassures her. “Just hold them off until we can get in.” 

“No,” Thea says. “They are looking for Oliver, tell him that he has to stay where he is. The second they get him, they’ll kill everyone else.” 

Oliver’s blood runs cold. Not in fear for himself, but in fear of what might happen to all of those innocent people in his name. 

“Who is they?” he asks, taking the walkie from John. 

“I can’t be sure,” she says. “But I’m pretty sure it’s The Final Order.” 

“That’s not possible,” Digg says, more to himself than to anyone else, but Oliver knows better. If the things they’ve seen over the years have taught him anything, it’s that anything is possible. 

“Thea, I’m coming to get you,” Oliver reassures her. 

“No,” she cries. “Don’t. Just… I need you to tell Roy that I love him.” 

“Yeah, you can tell him yourself,” Oliver says.

“You don’t understand,” Thea says, her voice shaky in a way that he hasn’t heard in years. Anything capable of scaring her, terrifies him. 

Oliver is about to respond when they hear a gunshot over the walkie and Thea cry out in pain. 

****

“You guys get in and you get out. You take them out as quickly as possible” Felicity tells the team as they all suit up. “They will try to get you talking. It doesn’t matter what they say, you don’t have time to stop and listen. They will do their best to distract you. If that happens, you’re already dead.” 

For once, the team doesn’t argue with her or give her sass. They must sense how panicked she is. Understand how serious this situation is. 

“We’ll bring your husband back,” Miyo says, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I promise.” 

Felicity doesn’t feel the need to explain that Oliver isn’t her husband anymore. 

“The reports say that the mayor isn’t inside,” Tomo says from his spot in front of the computer. 

“Oliver is inside,” she says. “If he wasn’t before, he will be now.” 

She watches as the team grabs their weapons and practically run out of the lair. 

“The negotiator was able to get through,” Tomo informs her, but doesn’t elaborate. He seems reluctant to tell her what he’d found out. 

She snatches the keyboard from him and pulls the phone call up for herself, then turns up the volume so that she can hear. 

“What are your demands?” the negotiator asks. 

“We want nothing except for Oliver Queen’s head on a stake,” a modulated voice comes over the speaker. 

She immediately begins running a program to strip the voice down. Soon, she can hear what sounds like a woman’s voice, but it’s not one she recognizes. She sets up voice recognition, hoping that it gets a hit, but knows it’s unlikely. 

“This city should have burned years ago, but Oliver Queen got in the way,” the woman says. She sounds completely deranged, but then again, no one she’s ever met in The Final Order is particularly sane. 

“You’re telling me that you’re willing to exchange all of the hostages if we deliver Mayor Queen?” the negotiator asks. 

Felicity knows that they would never make that trade. They aren’t allowed to negotiate with terrorists, but still… hearing the question sends a shiver down her spine. She hasn’t had to worry about Oliver like this in five years, and even then, she rarely was put in a position where it was Oliver Queen at risk. Usually she was worried of something happening to The Arrow. 

“We are asking for a public execution,” the woman says. “You kill your mayor, and we’ll let your people go.” 

“Do you really believe she’d let those people go?” Tomo asks. “She sounds 50 shades of crazy.” 

“No,” Felicity says. “They’ll kill every person in that building the second they get what they want.” 

She knows it beyond a shadow of a doubt. The Final Order doesn’t abide by the usual rules of war. They have their own rules of engagement. It’s what makes them so dangerous. They are unpredictable. 

“Oliver will be fine,” Tomo says, his hand rubbing her back in what is supposed to be comforting, but nothing of what is happening is comforting right now.

“I need to go there,” she says. “I have to do something.” 

“You can’t do anything from there,” Tomo says. “You have to trust that the team will bring him back.” 

Her phone rings and she looks down to see Quentin’s number calling her. 

“Hello?” she answers the phone, praying he has something useful to tell her. 

“They are looking for Oliver, but he’s not in there,” he says, not bothering with pleasantries. 

“I know,” she says. 

“You do?” 

“I’ve hacked into SCPD,” she informs him. 

“Of course you have,” he says. “Your mom is going crazy with worry.” 

“The girls are with you, right?” Felicity asks. For a moment she pictures The Final Order going after the girls once their plan fails. 

“They are. We’ve kept them away from the TV,” he says. “No need for them to see what’s happening.” 

“Detective…” she says, slipping up and calling him by his old title. It’s a habit that she’d finally broken around the time that he’d married her mother, but one that clearly came back the second she was working on Team Arrow again. 

“They are safe,” he says. “Nothing is going to happen to them. I’m guessing you’re already working this?” 

She knows she should say no. She shouldn’t tell him that she’s back to working with the team, because undoubtedly it would get back to Oliver. However, she can’t concern herself with that. Her promise to stay out of it hadn’t extended to situations like this. Besides, she’s willing to bet her life that he’s jumped right back into his old ways, too. There’s no way he wouldn’t if Thea is in that building. 

“I’m doing what I can,” she says. “It doesn’t feel like enough.” 

“I’ve known Oliver Queen a long time,” he says. “He doesn’t die easily.” 

She wants to be reassured by that fact, but she isn’t. Shouldn’t the sheer fact that he’s cheated death so many times mean that his number may finally be up? 

“I can’t lose him,” she says, holding back a sob. 

She can’t think about him dying. Not now. Not while they are separated and haven’t been together in years. Not while he still thinks she hasn’t forgiven him for what happened. He can’t die thinking that she doesn’t love him. 

“Felicity,” Tomo calls, waving her over. “The team is inside.” 

“I’ve got to go,” she tells Quentin, not even bothering to wait for his reply. She hangs up the phone. 

“What do you see?” She asks, taking the coms from Tomo. There’s no way she will sit back and let him run things. Not this time. Not when the life of Oliver is at stake. 

****

“Yeah, you can tell him yourself,” Oliver tells her. 

She supposes that it’s supposed to be reassuring, but it’s not. This isn’t just any street gang that’s holding them hostage. This is The Final Order. This is the group that is responsible for at least 30% of the scars on her body. This is the group that put Digg in a coma for a month. 

“You don’t understand,” she says. 

She’s trembling in fear, unable to control it. She’s completely forgotten everything she’s learned about overcoming her emotions. She knows that somewhere out there Malcom is screaming at her for letting herself fall apart in the face of a crisis. 

She’s about to tell Oliver again that he can’t come, when the door opens. 

“Well isn’t this interesting?” the man says. 

She barely has enough time to duck as a shot fires in her direction. She feels a bullet graze her shoulder, but if she hadn’t moved, she’d be dead. The man had gone straight for a headshot. She grabs a letter opener from the desk and throws it at him. It hits him right in the neck, but he doesn’t fall over. 

His gun goes off again, but she’s able to turn the desk over and use it for cover. She would be so much more useful in this fight if she had a weapon, but she knows that she has the skills to take him out without one. She just needs to breathe and focus. One man, she can handle. Final Order or not. 

“You bitch,” he says, but his voice is garbled. He’s choking on his own blood. 

“Oh, I really don’t like being called that,” she says, finding her strength again. 

She stands up, grabbing a stapler and flipping it open as she does. She whacks him in the face with it, hard. She knows that the staples won’t do that much damage, but she’s hit him hard enough to temporarily throw him off. A few seconds is all that she needs. She grabs onto a lamp and yanks it from the wall. She jumps over the desk and moves behind the man effortlessly. From here, she takes the cord from the lamp and wraps it around his neck. 

He uses his body weight to slam her into the wall, but she refuses to let go. She continues to yank hard, until finally he falls to the ground at her feet. 

She picks up his gun and moves to the door. She’s not safe here anymore. Her hiding spot has been compromised. It’s time for her to go on the offensive. She might not be able to take them all out on her own, but she knows that it won’t be long before Oliver and Digg show up to help her, no matter what she told Oliver about staying outside. 

****

Miyo yells as her right arm is pulled behind her painfully, but she uses her left elbow to smack her opponent in the face. As he stumbles backwards, she kicks out to knock a gun out of second opponent’s hands. She’s fighting against three of them, but her team are all fighting their own battles and can’t help her. She’s going to have to take them out on her own. 

The first man recovers and grabs her around the waist, knocking her forward a bit. She uses that momentum to flip him over until he’s landed on his back with a painful thud. She kicks him in the face and knocks him out. 

“You can’t beat us,” the third opponent taunts her. 

She attempts to draw her bow and shoot him, but the second man yanks the bow out of her hand. It doesn’t matter, she grabs three arrows from her quiver and stabs him in the chest with them.

She notices Riley get thrown into a glass wall that instantly shatters, and it momentarily distracts her. Miyo gets punched in the face and she falls to the floor, seeing stars. She reaches out and grabs onto the gun that she’d previously kicked out of this man’s hands and shoots him in the shoulder. It’s not a kill shot, but it’s enough to incapacitate him. She jumps to her feet and pistol whips him across the face. 

She looks over, relieved to see Riley getting back to her feet. She doesn’t know if she’d survive anything happening to her. The two of them share a smile, assuring one another that they are okay before going back to fighting. 

“This isn’t working,” Miyo says into the coms. “We need another plan.” 

“There is no other plan,” Felicity says harshly. 

Miyo knows that the woman is scared out of her mind and has every right to be, but she really doesn’t appreciate the tone. Her team is here risking their lives for Felicity’s husband. Miyo doesn’t care if Felicity is part of the famed Original Team Arrow. They’d called it quits and in their absence, Miyo and her friends have done what is necessary to save this city. That deserves a little bit more respect. 

She feels a burning sensation in her side and she realizes that she’s been shot. She grabs her bow and turns around quickly. The man that shot her has an arrow in his chest not even 10 seconds after the bullet hit her. 

“There’s too many of them,” Miyo says, as another two men come at her and manage to knock her to the ground. 

She gasps for breath as the wind gets knocked out of her, but she can’t afford the time it would take to recover. She has to keep fighting. She rolls away just as a foot comes at her face. The man’s boot scrapes against her cheek, but she misses the brunt of it. 

“Are the hostages still okay?” Felicity asks. 

Miyo glances over to where the doors to the assembly hall are. They’d thankfully been able to get all of the hostages on this floor into the room before engaging the men. Riley and Blayne have managed to fend the men off for now. 

“Hostages are safe,” she says. “At least on this floor.” 

She doesn’t want to think about how many people are still in the building unsafe. Not with how dangerous these men were. She’s distracted by Felicity's questions and isn’t able to stop the kick that lands heavily on her stomach. 

“Miyo!” she hears Riley’s voice call out to her. She can hear the fear in it. 

Faster than she can blink, Riley has ran across the room and jumped onto her opponent’s back and is pulling him away from her. 

She rolls over and draws her bow, managing to take out two more men from her spot on the ground. 

Just as she’s getting to her feet, she notices a woman come into the room, all kicks, hits, and turns. She takes out two men with a single roundhouse kick and when she stops for a second, Miyo sees that she’d taken out six men in under a minute. 

“Get down!” the woman yells at her. Miyo doesn’t have any time to stop and think, she simply ducks. The woman pulls a gun and shoots another man that had been coming up behind Miyo. 

When Miyo stands back up again, she sees the woman’s face fully for the first time. It’s Thea Queen. 

Where did Thea Queen learn how to fight? 

She watches, dumbfounded, as Thea effortlessly takes out another man with a single punch. 

“Are you going to stare at me or are you going to do your job?” Thea asks her, nodding to where another man was running towards her. 

“Is that Thea?” Felicity asks. “Tell her that it’s The Final Order and they are after Oliver.” 

“I’m a little busy at the moment,” Miyo says as a man starts throwing punches at her. 

“We need a way to get these people out of here,” Blayne says. “We won’t be able to hold them off forever.” 

“The only way out of the assembly hall is through the ventilation system,” Felicity says. 

“I’m on it,” Blayne says.

“I’ll keep fending them off long enough for you to get them out,” Sean says. 

The next time Miyo glances over, Blayne is gone and Felicity is talking her through an escape plan. 

“I don’t know how much longer I can do this,” Riley confesses, sounding winded as she continues to wield her staff, knocking out her opponents. 

“You can do this,” Miyo reassures her girlfriend. “Losing is not an option.” 

The fight continues for another twenty minutes until finally, it seems like they’ve taken out all of their opponents. 

“I think we did it,” Sean says. 

“There’s still more men upstairs,” Thea informs them, moving towards the stairs. “Oliver is engaging them, but he needs our help.” 

“Oliver Queen?” Sean blanches. “As in our mayor? How is he engaging these men?” 

Thea doesn’t answer, she dashes up the stairs without another word. 

They all move to follow her, resigned to the fact that their battle isn’t over yet. As she moves to step on the first stair, she groans out in pain. She’s been steadily losing blood from her gunshot wound, and she’s starting to feel lightheaded from the loss of blood. 

“Miyo?” Riley says, running to catch her as she starts to fall. “She’s been shot!” 

“I’m okay,” she mumbles. Her vision starts to blur. 

“Blayne is on her way back to get her,” Felicity says. “She’ll be there in 90 seconds. The rest of you need to get to the fourth floor and take out the rest of the men.” 

“She’s been shot!” Riley cries out in outrage. Miyo can hear the fear in her voice. “I’m not leaving her.” 

“I’ve got her,” Blayne says, running in to take Miyo from Riley’s arms. She lays her flat on the ground and begins working on stabilizing her wounds. 

“I’ll be okay,” Miyo says, reaching out to put a comforting hand on Riley’s cheek. “Go finish the mission.” 

“I won’t leave you,” Riley cries. “Not like this.” 

“It looks worse than it is,” Blayne informs them. 

Miyo certainly hopes so, because she is about 30 seconds from passing out and she’d really like for this to not be the last time she sees Riley. 

“See,” Miyo says, trying to keep her voice light for the sake of her girlfriend. “Go kick some Final Order ass. Don’t let this fight be for nothing.” 

The last thing she sees is her girlfriend leaning in to kiss her. The last thing she feels is soft lips touching her own. The last thing she hears is a whispered I love you. 

Then everything goes black. 

****

Oliver will never admit it to a soul, but he’s a bit out of practice. Five years of retirement have done him no favors. Sure, he’s continued his workouts, so he hasn’t lost most of his muscle mass. Sure, fighting was a bit like riding a bike. Many of his instincts are still there, which is great. It is the only thing that’s kept him alive for the last 25 minutes as he and Digg continue to work their way through the men that have been holding City Hall hostage. 

But yes… Oliver is a bit out of practice. Men that previously would have taken 30 seconds to incapacitate are taking a few minutes each.

“Like riding a bike, huh?” Digg calls out as he puts a man’s head through a glass wall. He can hear how out of breath Digg is and he’s glad he’s not the only one thinking about how much he’s going to be feeling this tomorrow. 

If they can make it to tomorrow. 

“Yeah, like no time at all,” he says, dodging out of the way as a fist comes at his face. 

They continue to fight their way through the hallway, praying that their appearance hasn’t caused the men to take out any hostages before they get a chance to rescue them. 

A man gets the better of him and pins him against a wall, punching him hard in the face, when suddenly an arrow hits the man and he falls to the floor. He looks and is surprised to see Thea holding a bow where he’d expected to see The Green Arrow. 

“Where’d you get that?” he asks, slightly jealous that he didn’t have a bow of his own. He would certainly be fairing much better if he did. At least he’d kept up with his archery skills by practicing at a local range. 

“Borrowed it from the Green Arrow,” Thea says, running over to his side to give him a quick hug. “I thought I told you not to come.” 

“In what world would I leave my sister to take on Final Order men alone?” he asks. 

“As much as I’m loving this family reunion, we need to keep moving,” Digg says. 

“They’ve got Dillon Scott in there,” Thea says and Oliver sucks in a breath. 

Over his time as mayor, he’s gotten to know many of the city officials quite well, but he’s especially close with Dillon Scott, the district attorney. Oliver doesn’t want to think of how many friends of his are being held right now. How many employees were being threatened simply for agreeing to work for him. 

“How many of them are there?” Digg asks her as they slowly make their way down the hallway, waiting for the next person to jump out at them. 

“I’m not sure,” Thea says. “I know there were at least 5 men that stormed the office, but I didn’t stop to take a good look. I just ran.” 

Oliver can hear the guilt in her voice. The self-loathing at leaving people she cared about in danger. 

“Hey,” he says gently, in a calming voice. “You were no good to them dead. You got out and now you can help save them.” 

“Yeah,” she says, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. 

“Where _is_ the Green Arrow?” Digg asks, and Oliver knows what he’s really asking is how long they have to wait for more backup. 

They are just about to turn the last corner where they will find themselves in clear view of the conference room, where the rest of the men are holding hostages. 

“She’s been shot,” Thea says solemnly. “The rest of the team should be up soon.”

The words hit him hard. He’s been shot numerous times during his tenure as the Arrow. He’d always found a way to recover and keep fighting, but the way Thea looked when she said it… he wasn’t sure that the new Green Arrow would have such luck. 

Would he be able to live with himself if the woman who took up his mantle when he quit the team died doing his job? 

“Alright,” Digg says. “Are we ready for this?” 

They all look at each other before nodding. It was now or never. 

They turn the corner and immediately start shooting. The huge glass walls of the conference room provide them no cover, so sneaking up on them was never an option. The firefight that begins is awful. He can only pray that none of the hostages get caught in the crossfire. For now, it looks as if all of the Order members are focusing their attention on the three of them at least, and not on the hostages themselves.

Oliver grabs a chair and uses it as a shield as he runs at the men. He hits one of them and keeps pushing until the man runs into the window and falls out of it. If nothing else had called the police into action before, that would. 

“We need to get the hostages out of here!” Oliver yells to be heard over the gunshots. 

“There’s no way that one of us alone can protect them!” Thea yells back. 

As she’s saying it, the rest of Team Arrow enters the room and for the first time all afternoon, it’s finally looking like a fair fight. 

As he grabs onto a man and breaks his wrist so that he’ll let go of his gun, he turns to Thea. “Go!” he yells. 

She nods and begins ushering the hostages out of the door, knowing that the team will draw the Order’s fire away long enough for them to escape. 

“The hostages are out,” Riley — or Black Canary as she’s better known as — says, presumably into her coms to Tomo, their resident Felicity. “How’s Miyo?” 

He dodges a chair that’s thrown at him, then shoots the man that threw said chair in the chest, careful to miss the heart and lungs. He wants to take him out, not kill him. 

“Your husband is here. He looks unwounded, but fuck can he fight. Why can he fight?” Sean, the Spartan, says. 

The comment sounds weird, but he doesn’t have the time to think about why that is. 

It takes them five more minutes to take out the rest of the men, but finally, they do. He’s bloodied and bruised by the end of it, but it’s nothing that he won’t heal from. He looks over to make sure that Digg is alright, before checking on the others. 

“They’ve all been incapacitated,” Sean says. “Tell Tomo that we’re okay and on our way back, Felicity.” 

The two of them move towards the door as he can hear SCPD making their way up the stairs. He reaches out to grab Riley’s wrist. 

“Did you just say Felicity?” 

He rips the com out of Riley’s ear and puts it to his own. “Felicity Smoak, tell me that is not you.” 

“Frack…” he hears her say and he sees red.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feedback is much appreciated as this is my first serious Arrow fic and I'm still trying to figure out what works and doesn't! <3 
> 
> Special thanks to my girl Emma (emisfritish) as this fic would't exist without her continued support.


	4. From Saints to Sinners

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

_**2021** _

_“They are about to take down an armored truck at 75th and Irving,” Felicity tells him over the phone._

_“On it,” Oliver says, signaling to the others that it’s time to suit up. “Are you on your way in?”_

_“I’m still at dinner with my dad,” she says._

_“Felicity—” he starts to argue, but decides against it. He doesn’t exactly enjoy the idea of her getting to know her father again, but he can’t deny her this. They can survive a night without her._

_“We’ll be fine,” he says, more reassuring himself than anything else._

_“It’s just one truck,” she says. And he can hear her gratefulness at him not arguing with her. This situation is already complicated for Felicity — trying to reconnect with her father isn’t easy — if he can make it any easier for her by holding his tongue, he’ll do it. At least, for now._

_“You guys can handle it. Call me if you need anything.”_

_He promises he will, then hangs up the phone._

_“Let me guess, The Final Order?” Thea says, already in her suit and ready to go._

_“They’re after an armored truck,” Oliver says._

_“Looks like they didn’t learn their lesson the last time,” Digg says._

_They all head out and rush over as fast as they can, eager to catch up to The Final Order before they get away._

_“Where’s Felicity tonight?” Thea asks._

_“With her dad,” he says, trying to keep the judgement out of his voice, but failing miserably._

_“You don’t trust him?” Digg asks._

_“I don’t know him,” he says, honestly._

_They don’t have any time to talk about it further as they catch up to the armored truck. There are three men on top of the truck holding a giant tool that looks like a jackhammer. Two black SUVs surround the truck, forcing it onto the path the Order has chosen._

_“You guys stop the cars, I’ll get the men up top,” Oliver orders._

_He sets the cruise control on the bike and carefully stands up on the seat. He’ll need the height to make it to the top of the truck. Once he’s close enough, he jumps up and climbs on top of the truck. Immediately, he’s shot at, but manages to avoid getting hit. He draws his bow and hits one of the men with an arrow. The man immediately falls off the truck._

_“Okay Katniss,” one of the men says with a harsh laugh. “Let’s go.”_

_Oliver stands still as the man comes running at him. He holds his ground, carefully timing his dodge just right so that when the man puts all his weight into his punch, the man loses his balance and falls off of the truck._

_This is almost too easy. When he looks up, the third man is coming at him with the jackhammer — the drill is moving and is aimed right at his chest. Oliver has to drop his bow in order to grab onto the front head before the drill can go into him._

_“This guy isn’t going down,” Thea cries out._

_Oliver glances over to the SUV where Thea is, to see her holding onto the hood for dear life as she’s getting shot at. He needs to go help her, but if he lets go of this hammer, it will go right into him and he’s 95% sure that he won’t survive it._

_“Speedy just go!” he yells._

_“My guys are down for the count,” Digg says. Oliver looks over to see that the SUV to the left has now disappeared. “I’m on my way.”_

_Oliver continues to hold onto the hammer, but he is being pushed farther and farther back until his heels are all the way off of the truck and he’s struggling to maintain his balance on the tip of his toes only. The man gives one last final shove, and Oliver loses his footing. Thinking as quickly as he can, Oliver gives the hammer one good pull and makes sure that the man falls off with him._

_He hits the ground hard, narrowly avoiding the drill piercing his chest, but it does get his arm. He can’t stop to think about the way his bad knee twists painfully as he lands. There’s no time. He flips back up quickly and gives the man three good punches to the face, effectively knocking him out._

_The only problem is, now he’s lost the truck and the SUV and he doesn’t have his bike anymore._

_“What’s happening?” he asks, needing to make sure that Thea is okay._

_“We’re good,” Digg says, sounding out of breath. “Looks like we caught ourselves another meta.”_

_“Speedy?” he asks. He knows in the back of his mind that Digg would have said something if Thea wasn’t alright, but he still needs to hear her voice._

_“I’m fine,” she says. “Got a flesh wound, but nothing terrible.”_

_He breathes out a sigh of relief that everyone is okay._

_“This is their third crime in less than a week,” Oliver says. “We need to find out what they are after.”_

_“What makes us think this isn’t the usually money, drugs, and power grab?” Thea asks._

_“I think any group calling themselves The Final Order probably has a greater plan than our everyday criminal,” Digg says._

_“I’ll get Overwatch on it,” he says. “For now, let’s call SCPD and call it a night.”_

_****_

_“Oww,” he cries out as Felicity cleans the wound on his arm._

_He’s on the couch in their living room. Ella is sleeping on his chest, being held up by his good arm. His leg is propped up on the coffee table where he’s currently icing his knee._

_“Well, I think this is a first,” she says, talking quietly so they don’t wake the baby. “I’ve cleaned a lot of bullet holes, more than a few arrow wounds, but a jackhammer?”_

_“Just trying to keep things interesting,” he says, smiling at her so that she knows he’s okay and won’t fuss over him too much._

_“Well at least you stopped them,” she says._

_“Not before they killed one of the drivers,” he adds in, feeling guilty for the two men who had died because they weren’t quick enough._

_“I already sent an anonymous donation to the Goldstein family,” she says. “I figured the last thing they should be worried about is the cost of a funeral.”_

_He nods his head, agreeing with her. It’s the least they can do._

_“How was dinner with your father?” he asks, as she finishes wrapping his wound._

_“I don’t know,” she says, climbing onto the couch and curling into his side._

_He looks her over carefully, trying to determine her emotional state. She’s been fairly tight lipped about her father over the last few weeks as they’ve been getting to know one another again. The most she ever tells him is when and where they meet up. He has no idea what they talk about. Anytime he tries to bring it up, she’ll change the subject._

_It’s almost like she’s embarrassed. As if she knows she shouldn’t be meeting up with him, but she can’t help it. He knows that Donna isn’t pleased with the arrangement at all and has made that abundantly clear. He’s tried to keep his opinions to himself and trust Felicity’s judgement, but it’s been hard. The only things he knows about Abraham Sokolski is what he saw of him that first night, what Donna’s said about him, and that Felicity had come back after that initial coffee stating that perhaps her dad leaving was a misunderstanding._

_Whatever that means? As if a father abandoning his child can be labeled as something as simple as a misunderstanding._

_He wishes that she would confide in him so that he could know what was going on. So that he could help her talk through the storm of emotions that her father being back clearly brings up in her. Mostly, he needs to know if Felicity is right, and there is something redeemable in Abraham Sokolski, or if he is a threat to his family that needs to be taken care of._

_“Talk to me,” he pleads._

_Felicity shrugs, and he’s positive that she’s about to brush him off again. She looks up at him and he can see her trying to come up with an excuse, but he’s pleasantly surprised when she actually decides to tell him something meaningful._

_“I think he might actually be a good guy,” she says, and the words don’t match the dark expression on her face._

_“Isn’t that a good thing?” he asks, confused._

_“Of course,” she says. “I just… I want to hate him for what he did to me and my mother.”_

_He nods, but doesn’t say anything. Now that she’s actually talking to him, he wants to make sure that she has the space and time to say what she wants to say._

_“He says he left because we were in danger,” she says. “That he had to leave to make us safe again. And I get that… I mean I married you, so I totally get the whole martyr act… Not that I’m comparing his actions to your own… you would never have left our girls… I mean, they’ve never been threatened so we’ve never tested that theory… But I’m pretty sure that you wouldn’t leave them. You wouldn’t? Would you?”_

_“Of course not,” Oliver says, reassuring her. “This family is forever.”_

_“Yeah, it is,” she says, lifting her chin to give him a kiss. When she pulls back, she’s wearing a sad smile. “I wish he’d felt that way about us…”_

_“He’s an idiot,” Oliver says, pulling her back into his side and leaving a kiss on the top of her head. “There’s no force in the world worth leaving you for.”_

_“Well…” she looks up at him and he wishes he could say that he enjoys how flustered she looks at his confession. However, the fact that her dad ever gave her a reason to doubt how amazing she is… The fact that he even had to reassure her that he would never leave because of what her father had done… it’s not adorable, he’ll tell you that much._

_“He says that he left to protect us,” she says, picking at her nail polish. “He says losing us pushed him to turn his life around.”_

_He waits another minute, but when it’s clear that she is done talking, he digests everything that he’s just heard._

_Something had happened when Felicity was little to put her life and Donna’s life a risk. Oliver’s willing to bet that something was related to the very reasons that Abraham was put into prison. He’d left to protect his family from harm. Felicity was right, he could understand that. He could also understand how losing her would make Abraham realize the error of his ways and want to be a better man. Felicity made Oliver himself a better man everyday. There are only a few handful of times that he’s come close to losing her, and those moments had been the worst of his life. He can sympathize with her father._

_“People change,” he says, offering up what little advice he could. “Look at the two of us. We certainly aren’t the people we were 15 years ago.”_

_“I know,” she says. “I just have so many years of pent up anger. It’s going to take more than a handful of dinners to erase that.”_

_“Well give it time,” he says. “You don’t have to magically forgive him all at once.”_

_Her father can fight for Felicity if he wants her. He needs to prove that he really loves her and wants her in his life. At least, that’s his opinion. He knows that ultimately the only one who gets to have any say as to how involved in her life Abraham is, is Felicity herself._

_“He tells me he loves me, but I don’t think I can say it back,” she says._

_“You don’t have to say it just because he has. You’ll say it when you’re ready to say it.”_

_“You know what I do love?” she says, sitting back on the couch so that she can see him clearly. She gives him a fond look._

_Oliver points to himself, playfully. She nods and leans over to give him a kiss, careful not to wake Ella._

_“I love watching you with them,” she says. “Who would have thought 10 years ago that Oliver Queen would be the world’s best dad?”_

_He smiles at her, accepting the compliment. He knows that he’s a good father. He works really hard at it. He wants to be there for Grace and Ella the way that he was never allowed to be with William. Sure, he gets to see William every other weekend when he comes up to stay with them, but it’s not the same. He’ll never get back the first 8 years of William’s life. He doesn’t want those kinds of regrets with his daughters._

_“Grace used to fall asleep just like this, remember?” he asks._

_“Vividly,” she says, her eyes filling with lust as they look him over._

_One thing they never tell you about becoming a father: girls go crazy over watching dad’s with their children._

****

**2026**

Oliver stands in the living room of Felicity’s apartment — the very apartment they used to share — watching in disbelief as Felicity tries to justify joining Team Arrow again without telling him.

“I cannot believe you are arguing this!” he yells, cutting her off as she tries to tell him that The Final Order being involved demands that they are, too.

“The very fact that we are talking about The Final Order is even more reason to Stay. Out. Of. It,” he continues. “Jesus Christ, Felicity, you told me when that plane hit that you would let the police handle whatever it is that is happening.”

“No, you told me to let the police handle it and then used our daughters to try and guilt me into doing so,” she says.

Thank god the girls were still with Donna and Quentin. They didn’t need to hear any of this.

“I never promised you anything,” she says. 

Oliver snorts. She’s unbelievable.

“What? So that one technicality somehow alleviates you of any blame?” he argues. “What about when we _promised_ each other to hang up the mask because it wasn’t safe anymore? Did that mean nothing to you?”

“You act like you didn’t go running into a hostage situation today where you were desperately outnumbered with a single gun,” she screams, her finger jabbing at his chest angrily.

Oliver sighs, trying to maintain his calm.This conversation is getting them nowhere. All they are doing is getting angrier and angrier at each other. He knows that she means well. She’s got such a big heart and so much compassion for the world. Of course she would want to help the team. That doesn’t excuse her lying to him, however. She should have told him what she was doing. How is he supposed to protect her from danger if he doesn’t even know about the danger she’s in?

It’s unacceptable.

“I only went in there because they had Thea. They were only taking hostages because they wanted me!”

“So you were just going to _hand yourself over_?” Felicity yells. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was for you?”

“At least you _knew_ when I was in danger,” he argues. “I had no idea that you were involved. I’ve had no idea that you’ve been playing hero for the last week while masks are getting murdered!”

“Isn’t the very fact that masks are getting murdered reason enough to get involved?”

“No,” he yells. “Do you have any idea what would happen if you were to die?”

She has to. He can’t believe that she has no idea how desperately he’s still in love with her. It would gut him if anything were to happen to her. It makes no difference if they are married or not. Together or apart. She is still his everything and he wouldn’t be able to function knowing that anything had happened to her and he hadn’t been there to stop it.

“I sit at a computer and play connect the illegal dots,” she says. “I’m not in danger, not like you were today. Do you even care that you could have died today?”

“Do you?”

It’s harsh, he knows that. He knows that it’s unfair to even bring it up. Felicity hadn’t left because she didn’t love him. At least, that’s what she’s always told him and that’s what he’s held onto all of these years.

“Don’t you dare,” she says, her voice full of venom. “Of course I would care if something happened to you. I was scared out of my mind today. The last thing I would ever want is for something to happen to you. Not only would my daughters be losing their father, but I’d be losing…”

She trails off and bites her lip, unwilling to finish that sentence. He groans in frustration. This is just so typically them. They have been able to keep things civil – friendly even — because they rarely talk about their relationship. Anytime Oliver feels like they might be bordering on that subject, she pulls away from him.

He wishes more than anything that she would just admit how she feels. Good or bad, he needs to hear her say it. If she’s done with him, then he needs her to let him go. He won’t be able to move on unless she tells him that she doesn’t love him anymore. If she does still love him… he needs her to admit it. He needs her to let him come back home again.

“I can’t put my own emotions over the wellbeing of others,” Felicity says, pulling back from that dangerous line where they would actually talk about their relationship. He wants to scream.

“And if you can honestly tell me that you’re willing to turn your back on the people of this city,” she continues. “That you’re willing to ignore the fact that our friends are dying left and right for being brave enough to continue fighting after we walked away… Then you’re not the man that I… The man that I remember.”

“You of all people know how dangerous The Order is,” he pleads with her, praying that she’ll see reason.

Yelling hasn’t worked. No amount of arguing will make her back down. He should have known that. The second he entered into this conversation angry, he’d lost her. Her defenses had gone up. Now, even if the smallest part of her believed she was in the wrong, she’d be too stubborn and defensive to admit she made a mistake.

“Which is why we have to help,” Felicity says. “They are just kids, Oliver. They are even less prepared for what’s to come than we were. I’m not going to abandon them. And… I’m not going to say you have to come back. I think you need to, but I won’t ask you to. I don’t have the right to ask you for anything, anymore.”

His heart breaks at her words. Of course she could still ask him for things. He would give her the sun and the moon if she wanted it.

“If you ask, I’ll do it,” he says. “That’s always been true and it still is..”

“We aren’t together anymore Oliver,” she says, giving him a sad smile. “I’m sure you have other women you can promise the world to.”

“Who would I possibly find that even begins to compare to you?” he asks.

“Please don’t,” she says, barely a whisper. “You know that at least half of the reason we are in this situation is because we loved each other too much.”

“Felicity—” He wants to correct her. What happened was entirely _that monster’s_ fault and he hates that she still blames their love instead. That she blames herself.

“I never would have done that… I wouldn’t have done any of it, if it wasn’t for you,” Felicity says, tearing up.

“They would have killed you if you hadn’t,” he says. He reaches out to comfort her, but she steps away.

“I think I would have preferred death to what I did,” she says and it brings tears to his eyes to see how much pain the memories still cause her.

“I would have rather died than live with the guilt,” she says, tears streaming down her face. “But I couldn’t let them hurt you.”

“I told you not to do it,” he says, wishing more than anything he could go back in time and change the past.

Believe him, he’s tried. He’d contacted that Rip Hunter guy to ask for help, but apparently that moment couldn’t be changed. It was too important to the timeline. He’d even asked Sara to steal the stupid ship and bring him back to that moment so that he could change the outcome… Sara had been willing. God, they’d tried. The plan had failed miserably though.

“I look at you, Oliver, and all I can see is this awful thing that I did in the name of love,” she says. “I think about the two of us together, and I remember how this beautiful thing was tainted by my actions and I can’t. So please, please don’t say things like that.”

“That I love you?” he says, because he needs it to be clear.

He needs her to know that it’s still true, even if she believes he should have given up on her. Even if she doesn’t want to hear it. It’s the truth and he’s learned long ago never to lie to her.

“I don’t want to love you,” she says, turning her back to him.

The words burn a hole inside of him, but he holds onto the fact that she hasn’t told him that she _doesn’t_ still love him, just that she doesn’t want to.

“What happened wasn’t your fault,” he says, causing her to scoff, but he ignores it. “You were put in an impossible situation and you made an impossible choice. You don’t have to love me anymore if you don’t want to.”

The words cause him physical pain to say, but he forces them out for her sake. She needs to hear this.

“You do however, have to love yourself enough to let it go,” he says. “Forgive yourself.”

She doesn’t say anything, but he knows that she’s heard him. Even if she won’t take his advice, she’d at least listened.

“I’m sorry that I lied to you,” she says after several minutes of silence.

“I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could trust me with this,” he admits.

That much is true. He’s always worked overtime to make sure she knew that he was always there for her, no matter what. The fact that she hadn’t trust him with this hurt. The pain from that combined with the fear he felt over her being on the team again was almost too much.

“I’m not sorry I joined the team,” she says.

He rolls his eyes in frustration. So they are back to square one. Just when he thought they were making progress.

“You are going to get yourself killed,” he says, harshly, not knowing any other way to get through to her but to be brutally honest. He realizes that he’s talking to a brick wall at this point. He won’t get through to her tonight. Maybe another time, once they’ve had some time and distance, but not tonight. 

“Maybe I will, but it’s not your job to protect me anymore.” 

He scoffs at that. Of course he’s going to protect her. If she’s going to continue to do this — and he sincerely hopes that she won’t — he’s going to protect her. God, just the thought of anything happening to her is devastating to him. 

“We have two daughters that would say differently,” he says. “If you don’t want to listen for me. Please, listen for them. They can’t afford to lose you.”

“Oliver, The Order targeted you today. _You_ being _Oliver Queen_. Not the Arrow,” she says. “There’s no guarantee that leaving the team will save any of us from what’s to come. At least this way, I can do something to help.”

“And if they find out that you’ve been looking into them?” he asks.

“Then they find out and we cross that bridge when we come to it,” she says. “The team has no idea what they are up against. I do. They need me.”

“I need you.”

The words aren’t meant to bring her any pain, but they clearly do if the stricken look on her face is anything to go by. 

“I need you to leave,” she says, pulling him towards the door.

“Okay,” he agrees, resigned to the fact that he’s worn out his welcome for the evening.

He’s not comfortable leaving without coming to an agreement. An agreement meaning that she’s agreed to leave the team. However, he’ll have to try again another time. He’s known her long enough to know when her mind is made up.

Perhaps Digg would have better luck?

“Felicity—” He starts to say something. He’s about to give it one last try when she cuts him off.

“You’re not the boss of me Oliver Queen” she says. “Now _please_ , go.” 

****

_**2021** _

_“What do you mean they didn’t take any money?” Oliver asks. “Then what did they take?”_

_Felicity scrolls through the police report on the bank robbery from last night, trying to find more evidence._

_The team had gone in after Felicity got the alert that there was a breakin at Star City National, but they had only been able to stop two out of the five burglars. The rest had gotten away with a bag full of something. They’d all assumed it was money._

_“It looks like the only things missing were two safe-deposit boxes which belonged to Adam Levy and Aaron Cohen. Both men are claiming that it was a misunderstanding and they do not want to press charges. Meaning they wouldn’t tell the police what was in the boxes.”_

_“How is a bank robbery a misunderstanding?” Digg asks, coming up behind her to look at the screen over her shoulder._

_“And therein lies the question,” she responds. “You have safe-deposit boxes because you want to protect something valuable from being lost or stolen. So when it is stolen, why would you refuse to report it?”_

_“Find out what you can about these two men,” Oliver says._

_“Already three steps ahead of you,” she says. “Mr. Levy runs a deli downtown and Mr. Cohen teaches world history at Starling U. Neither of them seem to be involved in anything nefarious.”_

_“Looks can be deceiving,” Oliver says. “Keep digging around. Let me know if you find anything.”_

_“You mean like the fact that both men are not at work today and their cellphones have been disconnected?” she asks, staring at her computer screen._

_“Exactly,” he says, leaning over to give her a kiss goodbye. “I know how you love a good mystery.”_

_She watches as Oliver and Digg exchange a look that is so clearly about her. She rolls her eyes. They have never been subtle. Apparently they come to an agreement, because next thing she knows, Oliver is grabbing his suit jacket and walking out the door while Digg takes a seat at the desk, in no rush to leave._

_“Aren’t you supposed to be his bodyguard or something?” Felicity asks._

_“You mean his black driver?” Digg asks, giving her a teasing smirk._

_“You know what I meant,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “What are you still doing here. You’ve got an actual paying job to get to.”_

_“So do you,” he points out. “I’ll leave when you do.”_

_She’s learned long ago to pick her battles and this is not one worth picking. She turns back to her computer and begins running deeper searches on the two men, trying to find anything that would explain why they were so unwilling to talk to the police. She pulls up family records and begins running searches on those as well._

_Fifteen minutes later, she gasps in shock as one of her alerts goes off._

_“Rebecca Cohen was just admitted to Starling General with multiple stab wounds,” she says. “Her son, Caleb, has been admitted with multiple contusions and some possible broken bones.”_

_“Aaron Cohen did this?” Digg asks, a look of rage filling his eyes at the thought of a father hurting his own family._

_“No,” she says. “SCPD got a statement from the son. He said that his dad was kidnapped this morning by the same people that hurt them.”_

_“Does he know who those people are?”_

_She leans in closer to her screen, trying to read the chicken scratch of the cop who’d filled out the police report. She has half a mind to have Palmer Tech donate tablets to SCPD simply so she never has to try and read another written report again._

_“It looks like a P? Or maybe it’s a B?” she says, thinking aloud. “Bine? That’s not a word. Binel Order — Frack.”_

_“The Final Order?” Digg asks._

_“I guess they’ve escalated to kidnapping and attempted murder,” she says._

_She immediately starts trying to track down Aaron Cohen based on what they know of the Order. If she can get a location, maybe they can get to him before it’s too late._

_****_

_“Damnit!” Oliver yells, kicking the door back open and storming out. “They aren’t here!”_

_Felicity had gotten a ping off of cellphone of a known Order member and they’d tracked it to this warehouse. It had been a long shot, but with nothing else to go on, they’d had no other choice but to pray that they would find something here._

_“Keep looking,” Felicity says, over the coms. “There has to be some reason that Grey was there. You don’t just hang out in an empty warehouse.”_

_“There’s literally nothing here,” Thea says. “Not even storage boxes or trash. Nothing.”_

_“How clean is it?” Felicity asks._

_“I don’t know, clean?” Thea says._

_“This is getting us nowhere, we need another location,” Oliver says impatiently._

_“It’s started getting cold outside and that whole district is abandoned warehouses,” Felicity says._

_“Your point?” he asks._

_“My point is that I’d be willing to bet that every other one of those warehouses has swatters. So why is this one so clean? What makes this one so special?”_

_“Hey guys, I think I found something,” Digg says._

_He runs back into the warehouse to see Digg swatting and staring at the floor._

_“That’s a pretty straight crack in the concrete there, wouldn't you say?”_

_“Overwatch, pull up plans for this building and tell me if there is a basement,” Oliver says._

_He can hear her typing away and it takes barely a minute for her to respond, “Yes. There is a basement. There should be stairs to it in the southwest corner.”_

_Oliver glances up and orients himself, they are standing in the southwest corner._

_“Looks like we found our stairs,” he says._

_“Only one problem,” Digg says. “How do we get in?”_

****

**2026**

I need you, he’d said to her. 

The words have been haunting her since he’d spoken them yesterday. So much so, that she didn’t get more than 15 minutes of sleep last night. She’s sure that she looks like hell because of it. It’s why she’s stopping for coffee before going into the office rather than sending Anna out to get it for her later. The last thing she needs is Anna, Curtis, or Andy on her ass.

There’s a part of her — a very large part of her — that had wanted nothing more than to fall into Oliver’s arms the second he’d said he needed her. It’s why she had kicked him out of the apartment so fast. Falling back into a relationship with him would be so easy. She’s still so desperately in love with him that it physically hurts. But they just _can’t._

Oliver’s right. She hasn’t forgiven herself, but he’s wrong in saying that she needs to. There is nothing redeemable in her actions. No part of what she did was excusable, even if she’d done it to save Oliver’s life. 

She loves him, but she doesn’t _want_ to anymore. Not with how easy it is to lose herself in him. Her mother had once told her that wasn’t true. That they hadn’t lost themselves, rather they’d found themselves in each other. 

Well, her mother could try explaining that to her father. 

She spots John the second she turns the corner, so she has time to prepare herself for the second wave of ‘What were you thinking?’ that is sure to come. She knows her boys well, and she can guarantee when Oliver didn’t get his way last night, he’d immediately called Digg to tattle on her. 

“I see Oliver sent in reinforcements,” Felicity says as she approaches the patio table where John is sitting, clearly waiting for her. 

She wonders if Oliver had slipped a tracker on her when she wasn’t looking or if John really just knows her that well. She only comes to this coffee shop in the morning when she’s exceptionally stressed out. Typically, she sends Anna to get her coffee later in the morning after her cup from home starts to wear off. 

“He’s concerned,” John says. “But I would be here even if he hadn’t asked me to.” 

She nods, knowing it’s true. John is like her older brother, and because of that, he is overprotective. He’s not quite Oliver Queen levels of overprotective, but he’s overprotective none the less. Of course he would be concerned about her once he realized what she was doing. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” she says. 

That much, at least, is true. Not telling her old team that she was getting back in the game wasn’t one of her proudest moments. She, more than anyone, understands the importance of honesty with the people you love. She may not be sorry for joining the team again, but she is sorry for lying. 

“Let’s go inside and get some coffee, first,” John says. “You’re not going to like what I have to say and I think it may be easier if you’ve got some caffeine in you.” 

“Right,” she says. 

John holds the door open for her and the two of them enter the small shop together, thankful that it’s not exceptionally busy today. They make small talk, discussing their daughters and upcoming parent teacher conferences as they wait in line. Unfortunately, the lack of customers, means that they have their coffee and are sitting down at a quiet table in the back far sooner than she’s ready for. 

“Just say it,” Felicity says, after John stares at her for far too long to be comfortable. 

“You’re letting your guilt cloud your judgement,” he says, not bothering to lead into it. 

She doesn’t bother responding, she knows that he has a lot more to say and it will likely be easier if she just lets him say it all at once. 

“You don’t need to prove anything,” he says. “You know exactly how dangerous what you are doing is. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have lied about it. You’re doing this because you somehow think that it will make up for the past. But solving this mystery won’t bring your dad back.” 

“That’s not why I’m doing this,” she argues. 

He has a look that says, ‘of course it is, you just can’t see it yet,’ but he has the decency to humor her.

“Then tell me Felicity, why are you doing this?” 

“Our friends are dying,” she says, her voice shaking as she thinks about the people they’ve already lost. “When I walked away, I didn’t think about all the people I left behind. How can I sit back and do nothing while the people who weren’t too scared... the people who’ve stuck it out and done what I refused to do get killed.” 

“Everyone that puts on a mask, knows exactly what they are risking,” he says. 

“I don’t blame myself for what happened to Ray and the others,” she says, and that much is true. There is a lot of guilt in her heart, but that is one weight she doesn’t carry. “But I _will_ blame myself if anyone else dies.” 

“Felicity—” 

“I didn’t know what was happening then, so I couldn’t have stopped it,” she cuts him off before he can lecture her about how she doesn’t need to carry the weight of the world. 

“I know that,” she reassures him, seeing the doubt in his eyes. “But _now_ I’m aware of the situation and I have the background knowledge to actually help. I can’t sit on the sidelines.” 

“The Order almost killed me, and I have far more training than you do,” he says, not unkindly. 

He’s not calling her weak. They all had their place on the team, and her’s was just as valid as John’s even if she never fought the bad guys with her fists. He’s simply pointing out the facts. The Final Order is an exceptionally violent group, they always have been. Being behind a computer screen doesn’t necessarily protect her from their wrath. If anything, it makes her more vulnerable. Easier to trace. 

“You understand why Oliver and I are scared,” he says. 

“I do,” she admits. She may be stubborn, but she’s not stupid. She understands why they would worry about her. It’s the same reason she panicked when she knew that The Order was after Oliver when they took City Hall. 

“You are just as scared for me as I was yesterday, knowing that you and Oliver were in that building fighting the Order.” 

“I guess none of us are that good at being retired,” he says. 

They both take several more sips of their coffee in silence, as they let the conversation they’ve had settle, playing over the important bits in their minds. She finishes her cup, signaling that it’s almost time for her to go. She’s already later than she’d planned on being to work, but she’s the CEO. Technically, she’s allowed to arrive late if she wants to. However, she at least has to be there in time for the meeting with the board at 10am. 

She grabs both of their cups and throws them away before coming back to the table to say her goodbyes. She could do just that. She could lean over, give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek and call it a day. She knows he hasn’t said everything that he wants to. It would be easy to slip out and not have to hear whatever it is he still has on his mind — and she has a feeling that she knows _exactly_ what he’s going to say. 

She takes a deep breath before nodding her head, reassuring herself that it will be okay. He can say it and she won’t break down. 

“I know that wasn’t everything you wanted to say,” she says. “So give me the rest of it.” 

“You have to tell him how you feel,” he says. 

Felicity shakes her head. 

Sure, perhaps there was a second, during the midst of all of the panic and mayhem, when she’d desperately needed to see Oliver again and tell him that she forgave him. That none of this was his fault. That she never blamed him, that she blamed herself. That seeing him only made her remember the awful things she did. As she sat in the lair terrified that he would die before she got the chance to see him again, she’d promised herself if he came out alive, she’d tell him she still loved him. 

It’s amazing how quickly she’d lost perspective in the crisis. The second that he came out of City Hall looking battered and bruised, but for the most part, no worse for the wear, she’d realized how selfish it would be to tell Oliver how she felt. 

He may think that he wants to hear it. She knows he does. She’d seen the silent pleading in his eyes each time she’d almost slipped up and said it last night. However, he doesn’t. He can’t want that. Not if it doesn’t mean they’d get back together. And they can’t. Getting back together is not an option. 

The only kindness she can give him, is to do her best to not get his hopes up for reconciliation. Anything else would be selfish on her part. She can’t keep him around simply because she doesn’t want to let him go. 

“It won’t change anything,” she tells him, her words full of regret. 

“He blames himself,” John says, not bothering to sugarcoat it. 

“It wasn’t his fault,” she says, exasperated. 

“It wasn’t yours either.” 

****

_**2021** _

_“Two men were found brutally murdered this evening outside of the Exchange Building. Little is known at this time, but sources say that the men were not killed at the Exchange Building, but rather brought to this location to make some sort of political statement. Witnesses claim to have seen letters pinned to the men’s clothes, but SCPD will not comment on an ongoing investigation. The —”_

_“Shut it off,” Felicity says, her voice barely a whisper. He can hear the pain behind it._

_He grabs the remote off of the coffee table and turns off the TV._

_“This isn’t your fault,” he says, recognizing the look in her eyes as one that he sees in his own reflection far too often._

_“Really? So it was your job to figure out how to get into that basement?” she says. “I didn’t know you’d learned how to bypass security systems.”_

_“We all should have been able to find a way into that basement,” he says. “Not just you.”_

_“And now two men are dead because we failed,” she says, tears filling her eyes. “Now, there’s a little boy out there who will never see his dad again.”_

_“Felicity—” he doesn’t know what to say. She’s crying because they should have done better and he has to agree. They’d failed tonight._

_“It’s been a long time since we weren’t able to save the day,” she says. “I forgot how awful it feels.”_

_He moves to her side and pulls her in for a hug._

_“We are going to stop these guys,” he says. “I won’t let this happen again.”_

****

**2026**

“The company can’t afford to delay development any longer,” Johnathan, one of the board members, says. 

Felicity does her best not to roll her eyes at him. 

“Our stock prices are high and with our new smartphone and smartwatch coming out this month, it’s only going to go up,” she says. “We can afford the delay.” 

She hates board meetings. The members are all the epitome of rich, white, male privilege. They treat her like she is incompetent despite having run the business successfully for the last eleven years and moving the company from near bankruptcy to the most profitable tech company in the world. They all have their degrees in business. None of them understand half of what the company does or how their products work, they only understand the bottom line. How can they make the most money the quickest. 

In the beginning, she had let herself be intimidated by them. She had nodded and agreed with most of what they said, because what did she really know about running a Fortune 500 company? Now though, she knows that they will always make a mountain out of mole hills and she needs to stand her ground on the things that she believes in. They don’t understand technology enough to really see what’s truly worth investing money in, nor can they anticipate what products will revolutionize the market. That’s her job. That is why Ray appointed her the CEO. 

“Be that as it may, what kind of people are we hiring to work here?” Gary, the most vocal of all the board members, asks. “What kind of lead designer takes time off right after getting approved for development?” 

“The kind of employee that had a plane crash into his apartment,” Felicity says cooly. “He expressed a desire to help with the cleanup process and I granted him a few weeks off.” 

“Don’t you feel you should have consulted with us first?” Gary asks. 

“I don’t have to consult with you when allowing my employees to use their allotted time off,” she argues, not allowing him to push her around. “This delay will only push us back a few weeks, which we can afford. The cleanup of the Glades was more important.” 

“More important?” Gary asks, while the rest of the board scoffs at her. 

“Ignoring the fact that I’m a moral person that believes in charity and goodwill, especially for the people of our own city,” she says. “Yes, the cleanup process in the Glades is more important. For starters, the very people of the Glades are going to be the ones employed by the new factory that we are opening up. Secondly, our company’s success is entirely dependant on public perception — or have we all forgotten just why we are no longer called Queen Consolidated?” 

They all clearly look like they want to disagree, but they don’t. They recognize when they have no leg to stand on. 

Curtis catches her eye over the table and sends her a knowing smirk. He always enjoys when she puts the board in their place, ever since she’d stood up to them on his behalf when they’d first met. 

“How long is Mr. Sanchez going to be out for exactly?” Jonathan asks. 

“Two weeks,” Curtis answers for her. “Development will start on November 16th.” 

“And is there a specific reason why we can’t start development without him?” an older man — Felicity can never remember his name, only that he smells like onions and always tries to grab her ass — asks. 

She meets Curtis’s eyes over the table and they silently debate how much information they want to give the board. 

_Tell them_ , Curtis’s face says, while she tries to tell him no. 

“We don’t have any of the research on site,” Curtis says, causing her to groan. 

“What?” 

“Where is it?” 

“Why wouldn’t you tell us this?” 

“Unbelievable!” 

The entire board erupts into outrage at once, and Felicity glares at Curtis. This is why she hadn’t wanted to say anything. 

“Where is it Ms. Smoak,” Jonathan asks, once everyone finally quiets down. 

“Currently, it’s at Mr. Sanchez’s apartment,” she says.

“The apartment that was hit with a plane,” Gary says, laughing, though she’s positive he doesn’t find any of this funny. 

“I’m guessing that we’ve already tried to retrieve it,” Thomas, the one member who could always be counted on to be rational, says. 

“The city won’t let anyone in until they can determine if the building is stable or not,” she says.

“This is a huge breach of security,” Gary says. “I can’t understand how a company employee could leave the lab with any research, much less for a project as sensitive as this. It sounds like Mr. Sanchez needs to be fired and possibly sued for breach of contract.” 

“He’s not in breach of any of his contracts because he was advised not to complete his research on company property,” Felicity informs them, causing another cry of outrage. 

“Can we all just calm down for a minute?” Curtis asks. “Felicity Smoak has never done wrong by this company, so I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t give her the benefit of the doubt and hear her out.” 

“Thank you Curtis,” she says. “None of us, and that includes Curtis and I, truly understand the capabilities of the fusion reactor. We have tested it, we know that it is going to provide near limitless energy once we can work out some of the kinks. This product will revolutionize the world, that’s not a question. The question is, how? And the fact remains that this technology, in the wrong hands, has the potential to be devastating.” 

“So you had an employee leave a building with millions of dollars of security with this research?” Gary asks her. 

“I can assure you that Mr. Sanchez’s apartment is 100% secure. I saw to that myself,” she says. “The same, unfortunately, cannot be said about our staff. I have put in a request with HR to rescan all our employees in the R&D department. They are looking into it. Until we can get every employee on that floor approved for high security clearance, I am not comfortable bringing the research back into this building, regardless if Mr. Sanchez is ready to come back to work or not.” 

“Well clearly it wasn’t safe in his apartment, now was it?” Gary asks. She wants to punch the condescending smirk right off of his smug little face. 

“Yes, because I could have foreseen a plane flying into Mr. Sanchez’s building,” she says, unable to keep the sass out of her voice. “We can all rest assured, the safe where the research is being kept is unbreakable, even for a metahuman. Mr. Holt saw to that. There are only three people in the world that could get into it: myself, Mr. Holt, and Mr. Sanchez. Plane crash or not, it’s safe.” 

“You’d better hope you’re right,” Gary glares at her. 

****

_**2021** _

_Oliver is surprised when he walks into the lair and he doesn’t find Felicity at her computers, but rather standing at a bulletin board that is covered in pictures, newspaper clippings, and red strings._

_“What are you doing?” he asks._

_“Come look at this,” she says, barely looking up from whatever it is she’s reading off of her tablet._

_“What am I looking at?” he asks._

_He can see that she’s posted pictures of all of the victims along with their names and other information about their death. From each picture, there are strings that go from one person to another with little post it notes of various connections between them. Cohen and Goldstein go to the same gym. Bernstein and Friedman have the same investment banker._

_Nothing seems to connect to anything in a consistent and logical way. The killings seem random._

_“We know that since Aaron Cohen and Adam Levy, there have been at least 10 murders,” she says, pointing to the pictures on the board._

_“There are 14 pictures,” he points out._

_“That’s because before Cohen and Levy, there were actually two other murders,” she says._

_“The armored truck driver?” he says, pointing to Ezra Goldstein. “He wasn’t a target through, just a casualty.”_

_“Or maybe that’s what they wanted us to think,” she says. “Since then, they’ve become less shy about taking credit.”_

_“So what am I looking at exactly?” he asks again, trying to figure out what she was doing here when she usually preferred to do all of her work on her computer._

_“It was bugging me that I couldn’t find a connection between any of the victims. Apart from being found by the SCPD with vague notes about political agendas, there’s nothing. It’s like they were picking their victims at random. But then I noticed something…”_

_She hands him her tablet, where she’s listed out all 14 names of the victims:_

_Sara Schwartz_  
Ezra Goldstein  
Adam Levy  
Aaron Cohen  
Noah Rosenberg  
Rachel Rosenberg  
Daniel Bernstein  
Robert Friedman  
Hannah Kaplan  
Matthew Goldberg  
Nathan Cohen  
Rebecca Epstein  
David Epstein  
Abigail Kagan 

_“As a fellow Jew, I feel completely comfortable informing you, that those are all Jewish names,” she says._

_“What? No,” he says. “That can’t be right. I mean, what, just because somebody’s name is Goldberg they are Jewish?”_

_Felicity flicks to a different screen on her tablet and shows him all of the victims pictures side by side._

_“They all look pretty Jewish to me,” she says. “The Epsteins attend the same synagogue as me.”_

_“We’re sure?” he asks._

_“As soon and I realized it, I started digging around, and… yeah. I’m sure.”_

_“You think that The Final Order is targeting people who are Jewish?” he asks, feeling an icy chill run down his spine. They’ve dealt with a lot of evil in this city over the years, but they’ve never had to get involved in anything having to do with religion. That’s not a problem he’s sure he can solve._

_“Anti-semitism is still alive and well in our country, even if the news doesn’t report on it,” she says. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”_

_“But Felicity, you’re Jewish,” he points out, feeling himself start to panic._

_Oh god. What if they went after Felicity, or worse… what if they went after his daughters. So far they hadn’t murdered any children, but there was a first time for everything._

_“Well thank you for pointing out the obvious,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “But Oliver, I wouldn’t worry about me.”_

_“Why?” he asks. She’s his wife. She’s supposed to be the first thing he worries about at all times._

_“Look at all of those people and their names,” she says. “I’m a Queen and I’m blonde. I don’t fit the MO.”_

_“You are arguably one of the most famous Jewish people in the city,” he says. “Why wouldn’t they go after you?”_

_“Because I have you,” she says with a warm smile, leaning in to give him a kiss._

_“I think we need to get you more security,” he says._

_“Do whatever you need to feel comfortable,” she says handing him her tablet and grabbing her coat off of the chair. “I’ll be at work. We’ve got our big product launch tomorrow and Curtis will kill me if I don’t come in today.”_

_He grabs her wrist before she can go and pulls her towards him. Once she’s close enough, he wraps his arms around her shoulders and holds her close._

_“I’m going to be fine,” she says, wrapping her arms around his waist._

_“I know,” he says. “I just need to reassure myself of that sometimes.”_

_She lifts her head and stands on her tiptoes to reach him. He meets her halfway, his lips finding comfort in hers. It doesn’t matter how many times they’ve kissed in the past. How many thousands upon thousands of kisses they’ve shared. Each time is always something special._

_He lets her take control of the kiss, opening his mouth as he feels her tongue seeking entrance. It’s a hungry kind of kiss that is full of so much promise. He moves one hand into her hair, which is thankfully down so that he won’t get lectured about messing up her ponytail. The other hand reaches around back to cup her perfect ass._

_“Mmmm,” she hums, signaling that there’s something that she wants to say but isn’t willing to break their kiss to do so._

_He pulls back and begins kissing his way down her neck, giving her a chance to breathe and say whatever it is she wants to say._

_“Oliver,” she says, her voice breathy and wanton. “The first time we have sex in months, is not going to be in this lair.”_

_He pulls back and give her a wide smile, excited to realize that she’s finally feeling healed enough to have sex again. It may not be everything, but it is certainly a big part of their life that he’s ready to get back._

_“If not here, then where?” he asks, fully prepared to throw her over his shoulder and take her wherever she needs to go to feel comfortable._

_She laughs at him, and the sound fills him with such a feeling of content. He’s always amazed that he’s managed to find such an amazing woman and that he hasn’t done anything to screw it up yet. She’s everything he could have ever wanted._

_She runs the back of her hand up and down his cheek lovingly, then says, “Not now. Tonight. Thea’s been dying to babysit, I say we let her.”_

_“It’s a date,” he says, already planning what he’s going to cook for her. He wants tonight to be special. They don’t get to be alone together often anymore — at least not in a romantic sense. He’s going to go all out for her. She won’t know what hit her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feedback is much appreciated as this is my first multi-chapter Arrow fic and I'm still trying to figure out what works and doesn't! <3
> 
> Special thanks to my girl Emma (emisfritish) as this fic would't exist without her continued support.


	5. At Its Cruelest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a friendly reminder to heed the warnings/tags - especially if things like violence and kidnapping/attempted kidnapping trigger you

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2026**

Felicity steps off the elevators and walks through the doors of the IT department, feeling a bit nostalgic. She hasn’t worked on this floor in 13 years, but she can still remember her very first day, stepping through these doors full of hope and possibility. She had no idea back then that she would one day run the company. 

“I’m looking for Tomohiro Kato,” she informs the man who is running the front desk. 

“Ms. Smoak,” he says, looking at her in shock. “Was there something we could do for you? You don’t usually come down here. If there was a problem with your computer, you could have called. Let me get somebody for you…” 

“If there was a problem with my computer, I would fix it myself,” she say with a laugh at the panicked look on the poor guys face. 

“Of course,” he says. “Because you’re a tech goddess. Right. I didn’t mean to imply that you couldn’t… I just… what did you need again?” 

“Tomohiro Kato,” she says. 

One of the things she will never get used to about being CEO is the way that everyone always gets so nervous around her. 

“Of course, I’ll just go get him,” he says. 

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she says. “Just point me towards his desk.” 

She’s directed towards the back and through the second set of doors on the left. Honestly, she should have known. Of course Tomo would work exactly where she used to. 

“This used to be my desk, you know,” she says, once she reaches the corner of the server room where Tomo’s desk is located. 

He jumps a bit at her voice, but calms down once he realizes who it is. 

“Believe me, I know,” he says. “A few of your old co-workers are still here and like to remind me,” he says. “So, what brings the CEO all the way down to my desk. I’m guessing this isn’t about Palmer Tech because you’d be able to fix any problem that came up.” 

She smiles at him kindly, “I wanted to check in on you.” 

“On me?” He looks genuinely surprised at that. 

They may not know a lot about each other, but they are teammates now and teammates look out for one another — especially when one teammate’s sister was shot and almost killed. 

“Yeah,” she says. “How are you?” 

“Me? I’m fine,” he says. 

“Really?” she says, looking him over doubtfully. He has dark circles under his eyes and she’s pretty sure that his wrinkled shirt means that he’s been wearing the same clothes since at least the night before. 

“Why don’t you and I go get some lunch,” she suggests. 

“I can’t. I’ve got all these requests —” 

“Tomo,” she says, fixing him with a hard look. “You have the best excuse in the world to put off those requests. The CEO herself is giving you explicit permission. Besides, you shouldn’t be at work today and I had a meeting with the board go long so I’ve completely missed lunch. Let’s go.” 

He looks like he wants to argue with her, but her stern look must tell him that it would be a bad idea. He closes an open folder on his desk and turns off his computer and tablet before grabbing his jacket. 

“That’s more like it,” she says with a warm smile. “Now, where would you like to eat? It’s my treat.” 

The two of them end up at a small ramen place just around the corner that she’s somehow never been to despite working in the area for years. Unsure what to eat, she trusts Tomo to order something for her and soon they are settling in. He looks much more comfortable around her now that they are no longer at work. 

“So how is Miyo doing?” she asks. “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to stop by last night to check on her myself.” 

“It’s alright,” he says. “It seemed like you had your hands full dealing with Oliver. Miyo is fine. She’s already on her feet and ready to kick ass. Against all of our advice.” 

Felicity recognizes that annoyed tone as one that she herself has had numerous times over the years. She’s pretty sure that stubbornness is one of the prerequisites to being a vigilante, right after martyrdom. 

“Welcome to life as a sidekick,” she says. “Sometimes it feels like half of my life was spent saying, ‘should you really being doing that?’ and ‘please let me take you to the hospital.’” 

“As if you were ever a sidekick,” Tomo says with a knowing smirk. “Rumor has it that you ran the whole show.” 

She shrugs, because she can’t really deny that. Oliver may have told them what to do and where to go, but the second they were out in the field, it was her job to direct everyone and play eyes and ears for everyone. She didn’t get the name Overwatch for nothing. 

“So how many times did your Arrow get shot and almost killed?” he asks. 

She can tell that he’s trying to make light of what happened to his sister, but it’s hard. She gets that. It’s never easy to see somebody you love get hurt. 

“Are we talking total or in a single week?” she jokes, trying to keep things light since it seemed like Tomo wasn’t ready to talk seriously quite yet.

“How did you do it?” he asks. “I mean, you guys were still saving the city even after you started having kids. How did you let him go out there everyday knowing that he might not come back.” 

“I don’t know,” she admits, because she knows that it sounds crazy.

She knows that no sane person should have let her husband go out into the field to get shot at on a regular basis when they had two daughters at home depending on them. She just did. Him quitting had never even been up for debate. They hadn’t retired until...

Until _she_ was the one that couldn’t do it anymore...

Until _she_ was the one that couldn’t be trusted...

She had thrown in the hat and Oliver had simply followed suit, claiming that he couldn’t do it if she wasn’t going to have his back. Claiming that there would never be anyone else he trusted to run his coms but her. 

After they stopped, it didn’t take long for the others to follow suit. 

“I think that it just became normal for us,” she says, pulling herself out of her dark thoughts. “There was always something out there threatening the city and if we didn’t stop it, nobody would. So I let him go. I’m not sure that he would have been the man I loved if he was the type to give up.” 

“But you all _did_ quit eventually…” She can hear the question in his voice, even if he’s not explicitly asking her. 

She takes a deep breath, deciding how much she really wants to tell him about what happened. She doesn't owe him anything. She knows that. Except, she kind of does. He took up her mantle when she was too overwhelmed with guilt to see straight. The least she can do is be honest with him and help him deal with his own warring emotions. 

She can’t tell him everything. She isn’t even ready to talk about that with her close friends and family. However, she can tell him something. 

“I guess we finally found our breaking point,” she says, sadly. “I hope you never have to find yours.” 

“What if this was it?” he asks, looking up at her with such pain in his eyes. “I’m not an idiot. This is a dangerous job. I know that. She’s just never come home with more than a flesh wound before. She could have died fighting those men. We aren’t prepared for this.” 

“You _are_ ,” she reassures him. “Well… at least, you _wil_ l be.” 

“How?”

She reaches over and takes his hand in her own, squeezing it tight.

“Because this is the moment you realize that you have to do better,” she says. “This was your first test. I know you must be familiar with the Hero’s Journey.” 

“We’re not heroes,” he says. “We’re just kids playing dress up. The real heroes gave up on this city years ago.” 

His words hit her hard. She knows that he’s right. They did give up on the city. They’d called it quits and hadn’t paid any thought to the people who had donned the masks in their absence. They’d failed their city. She had failed her city. 

She wasn’t stupid. She knew that the only reason that the rest of them had called it quits was because of her.

“I’ve learned that the real heroes rarely call themselves that. They’re just everyday people doing what they have to do to help others, despite the personal cost. Don’t sell yourselves short,” she tells him. 

“Why did you quit?” he asks. 

She shrugs the question off, but he keeps pressing. 

“I’ve been watching you when you’re working with us. There’s a fire there. You love being Overwatch. You have a gift, and I can’t understand what happened to make you give that up.” 

“We met our match,” she says, trying to make it seem like it’s not a big deal. 

“The Final Order,” he says, knowingly. 

“Yes… and no,” she says. “It’s complicated. I came to a point where I was no longer was able to help the people of this city. And when that happens, when you become more of a liability than a savior, it’s time to hang up your hat.” 

“I can’t imagine you ever being a liability,” he says. 

“You haven’t seen the world at its cruelest,” she says. “And I pray you never will.” 

At her words, a dark look comes over his face. She can tell that he’s reliving some sort of past memory by the way he’s looking at her, but not seeing her. 

Their waiter comes by with their food. She thanks him and begins eating, allowing Tomo the time to gather his thoughts. 

“My dad used to make the best ramen,” he says quietly. 

Felicity doesn’t want to pry. They really aren’t friends, despite the sheer amount of hours they’ve been working together for the last week. However, she feels like they could be friends and it seems like he desperately needs one. 

She remembered Miyo saying that their parents had been killed by The Final Order. She wants to ask him more about it, but doesn’t know how he’ll react. She bites her lip and debates if she should say anything or not. 

“It’s okay,” he says, giving her a small smile. 

She gives him a confused look before he continues, “I can tell you want to ask me about them.” 

“You don’t have to tell me,” she says. 

“We’re partners right?” he says. “We have to trust each other or this will never work.” 

“True,” she says. “So what happened?” 

“The police say that they were murdered because our family is Jewish,” he says. 

“You don’t believe them?” she asks. 

The Final Order was linked to at least 50 hate crimes by the time they were taken down five years ago, and that was only the crimes that could be linked to them. She knows that there are likely close to a hundred unsolved cases that are their doing as well. Every last victim was Jewish. Every. Last. One. 

Tomo shakes his head. “I don’t think that The Final Order killed them.” 

“But Miyo said—” 

“Miyo doesn’t know any better,” he says, giving her a sad look. “She was only 14 when it happened. It was just easier to let her believe that it was a random attack. She wouldn’t believe me anyway. You saw how she was when I suggested that all the terrorist attacks were linked.” 

“What makes you think they were targeted?” she asks. 

“I was home when it happened,” he says, his eyes welling with tears. She can see how painful this is for him and it breaks her heart. It kills her how many families were torn apart by The Final Order before they were able to stop it. 

“My dad had me hide in the attic,” he says. “I heard them talking to my parents. They were torturing them for information. They wanted to know about the research they were doing — they both worked in the lab at Kord Industries — I think that my parents were killed because they refused to give up information.” 

“The Final Order wanted something at Kord Industries?” she asks, her mind going a mile a minute, trying to figure out what Kord Industries might have been working on that time that the Order would want. 

“I think _somebody_ wanted information and I think they went through a lot of trouble to cover their tracks and make it seem like The Final Order killed them instead.” 

“I’m assuming you’ve already looked into it.” 

“I couldn’t find anything,” he says with a shrug. “The research my parents were working on was still too new. Nothing worth killing them over…” 

“You’d be surprised at what evil men find to be acceptable reasons to kill over,” she says. “What were they working on?” 

“They were trying to develop a limitless energy source,” he says. “But like I said, the research was still in it’s infancy. Taking it wouldn’t have gotten them anywhere.” 

Limitless energy. 

Like the fusion reactor that has just been approved for development by Palmer Tech. The project that’s been put on hold because a plane had flown into Manuel Sanchez’s apartment building. 

“Frack,” she says, rubbing her forehead in frustration. 

How had she not seen this before? Of course the plane crash hadn’t been an accident. The building was targeted. It was targeted because of Sanchez’s research. 

She prayed that her safe was really as unbreakable as she’d thought. 

“What?” Tomo asks, looking her over, concerned. “Do you know who killed my parents?” 

“No,” she says. “But I think I know who they might be targeting next. I’ll pay the bill, you call the team. We’re not going back into work today.” 

“We’re not?” 

She shakes her head. “We’ve got a man to protect, and hopefully a safe to recover.” 

She doesn’t want to think about what will happen if that safe is gone. 

****

_**2021** _

_“Mom?” Felicity calls out as she enters the loft. “You guys home?”_

_“We’re upstairs!” she hears her mom call out._

_She hangs up her coat and sets down her purse before heading upstairs. She passes by Ella’s room and peaks in, happy to see that she’s sleeping soundly. She finds her mom in Grace’s room. The two of them are playing with the Nerf bow and arrow set that Oliver had gotten for her awhile back._

_“What are you doing home so early?” her mom asks._

_“Ugh, I’m getting pulled into a charity thing this evening and need to change,” she says._

_She takes a seat on the floor and picks up the bow, showing Grace how to hold it properly so that she stands a chance at actually hitting her intended target. She’s no Olivier, but she’s watched him shoot his bow enough times in her life to be able to offer her daughter a few pointers._

_“Oliver was supposed to cook you dinner tonight,” her mom says. “He already called Thea to babysit.”_

_“I know,” she says. “I’ll still be home for that. It’ll just be later than we planned.”_

_Her mom gives her a doubtful look, but doesn’t say anything else. Felicity rolls her eyes. The fact that her mom is more concerned for her sex life than she is will never not be annoying — god love the woman._

_“I already talked to Oliver. The event starts at 6. I’ll be home by 8. It wasn’t like I was given much of an option,” she says, hating that she is 32 years old and still feels the need to justify herself to her mother._

_“I would just hate to see you lose a good man because you didn’t keep him interested,” she says. “If you need me to give you tips, all you have to do is ask.”_

_Felicity tries not to barf at the idea of her mother giving her sex tips._

_“Oh my god, no!” she cries out. “No thank you. I promise, Oliver and I are fine. Honestly. No danger of breaking up.”_

_“Who’s breaking up?” Grace asks._

_“Nobody, Sweetie,” Felicity says, leaning over to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Did you have a good day with Grandma?”_

_“Oh, I’ve told you not to call me that,” her mom says. “It makes me sound old.”_

_“As if anyone would ever think you’re old the way you dress,” she says causing her mom to smirk and play with her hair._

_“Gam’ma took us to wide da horsey,” she says._

_“See? Now she’s calling me Grandma,” her mom says with a roll of the eyes._

_“You guys rode horses?” she asks, ignoring her._

_“We went to the mall and rode the carousel,” her mom explains._

_“Mines was pink!” Grace exclaims happily._

_“Well that sounds like fun!” she says with a wide smile._

_She’s always happy to see her daughter happy. She feels guilty whenever she has to work and can’t be home. She’s home practically every night and weekend. Oliver and her have made a pact that they won’t do any Team Arrow work until after the girls are in bed, unless it’s an apocalypse-type situation. They know how important it is to be there for their daughters — but still, she can’t help but feel like guilty whenever she is away._

_“Well I have to go pick out a dress for a charity event,” Felicity says. “Do you want to help me?”_

_Grace’s eyes light up as she nods her head and goes running out of the room._

_The four of them are in her room. Her mom is on the bed with a newly awakened Ella, while Grace stands in Felicity and Oliver’s closet pointing out various dresses that she thinks Felicity should wear._

_“How about this one?” Felicity asks, pulling out a red, floor length number which has Grace scrunching her nose and shaking her head._

_“This is one of my favorites,” Felicity says, slightly offended._

_“Daddy said no wed,” she says, pulling down a pair of blue heels and trying them on herself. Felicity has to smile at the image, quickly pulling out her phone to capture the moment and send it to Oliver._

_“When did your daddy say that?” Felicity asks, putting the red dress back and digging around for another acceptable outfit._

_She has plenty, it is just that she has to find a dress she hasn’t yet worn to an event before, which is pretty hard. She still can’t believe the last minute invitation and the fact that she is still expected to be there. There is no time to buy a new outfit like she usually would, so she has to find one that works._

_Maybe if she can find something old enough, nobody will remember she’s ever worn it. Perhaps something from before she’d become CEO and one of the most photographed women in Star City._

_“Last time you weft without Daddy,” Grace says, digging through an old jewelry box of Felicity’s._

_Grace is right. Oliver had actually told her that the last time she’d had to go to an event and he couldn’t come. He’d told her that she was too attractive in red to allow her to go out in it without him. Not that he honestly thinks he has anything to worry about. He knows that Felicity will never stray. She knows that he simply doesn’t like her getting dressed up if he can’t be the one to undress her at the end of the night._

_“Well, no red then,” she says to Grace. “How about blue?”_

_She pulls out a blue dress that she hasn’t seen in years. It’s one that she had worn way back when Oliver was still running Queen Consolidated and she was still his EA. She looks it over, trying to figure out if it is old enough to be considered vintage rather than outdated._

_“That one, Momma,” Grace says, looking up at her with wide eyes._

_“You like this one?” she asks, to which Grace nods so big that she tumbles out of the heels. Felicity grabs her before she can hit her head on anything._

_Felicity carries the dress out of the closet and Grace follows her._

_“That one is nice,” her mom says. “Do you have time to feed her before you get changed or should I get her a bottle?”_

_Felicity looks at the clock. She’s still got 40 minutes before she has to leave. If she throws her hair up into a quick updo and just changes her lipstick, she should be okay._

_“I’ll take her,” she says, reaching out for Ella._

_As she’s about to sit down and nurse, she hears the sound of glass shattering downstairs. Her breath catches in her throat as she immediately goes into defense mode._

_Somebody has broken into their house. Between Oliver being the mayor, her owning Palmer Tech, and their nighttime activities, it’s safe to assume that whoever it is isn’t looking to simply steal their TV._

_“What was that?” her mom asks, moving towards the door. Felicity grabs onto her wrist to stop her._

_“Get in the closet,” she whispers to Grace, standing up to grab Grace’s hand and force her along._

_“What are we doing?” Grace asks, so innocent and unaware of the danger she’s about to be in._

_The sound of gunshots going off downstairs sets her heart racing._

_“Felicity—” her mom says quietly, shooting her a panicked look. Felicity is sure that her face isn’t much better._

_“It’s going to be okay,” she says, trying to reassure them all. “Mom, lock the door.”_

_Her mom goes to lock and door while Felicity pushes a silent panic button on the inside of the closet._

_“We’re going to play the quiet game,” she says to Grace as she opens a secret door in the closet that they’d had installed for moments like this. When they installed it, she’d prayed she’d never have to use it, but with the life they lead, she recognized the importance of being prepared._

_Thank god they were prepared._

_“Do you remember the rules?” Felicity asks, her voice shaking, as she pushes Grace into the small room and directs her to sit on the ground so that she can place Ella in her arms._

_“Momma,” Grace cries, tears already streaming down her face._

_“Gracie, I need you to tell me the rules,” she says, trying to remain as calm as she can so that Grace won’t freak out._

_“Stay here,” Grace says, her lower lip trembling. “Don’t talk. Wait for mommy and daddy to come back.”_

_It breaks her heart that they’ve even had to prepare her for an event like this, but right now she’s glad they have._

_“You only open this door for family,” she says. “Do you hear me? I don’t care who says they are on the other side of this door. If it’s not Mommy, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa Q, or your Aunt and Uncles, you don’t open this door for anybody.”_

_The sounds below grow louder as she can hear more glass breaking and grown men yelling for the Queens to come out._

_Grace nods, her entire body shaking in fear. It takes everything in her not to crawl in there with her girls, but she knows that she can’t. The men are looking for somebody, and she can’t risk them finding the girls. She will have to distract them so that they stop looking._

_“I love you, Sweetie,” she says. “I’ll be back soon. Take care of your sister.”_

_She shuts the door and waits until she hears it lock into place before turning around to face her terrified mother._

_“What’s happening?” her mom asks, quietly._

_“I KNOW YOU’RE IN HERE QUEEN!” a man calls out from below. She hears at least one of them coming up the stairs._

_She quickly runs to Oliver’s nightstand and pulls out the gun that he keeps under his journal._

_Later on tonight, when she’s made it out alive and everyone is okay, she’ll apologize to him for harping about gun safety._

_“Are they after Oliver?” her mom asks._

_“They might be after me,” she says, trying not to think about what will happen if it’s The Final Order. She’s seen what they did to their other victims. Oliver had been right. She wasn’t as safe as she’d thought._

_She turns the safety off of the gun and points it at the door. She’s not an expert shot, but Digg and Oliver have at least made sure that she knows some basics. She can only hope that she knows enough to keep them at bay before help can arrive._

_“After you?” her mom whispers, a mix of confusion and fear._

_“There’s a group going around killing Jews,” she explains quickly._

_Her mom gets a dark look on her face then grabs the gun out of Felicity’s hand and points it at the door, looking more comfortable than she should handling a firearm._

_“Mom?”_

_“I grew up in Russia and I married a cop,” she says, giving her a significant look._

_Let it never be said that Donna Lance isn’t a badass in her own right, Felicity thinks to herself._

_Somebody begins pounding on the door hard, causing both women to shriek._

_“I tripped an alarm,” Felicity explains. “Security should be here in 2 minutes.”_

_“I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE, YOU DIRTY JEW!”_

_Right, she thinks. That pretty much confirms it’s The Final Order. Of all the people that could have been breaking in, The Final Order is the worst case scenario. Right up there with Slade Wilson and Damien Darhk._

_She tries not to think about how difficult it is to find air as her body shakes with fear. She grabs the closest thing she can find — which just so happens to be an award she’d won that Oliver had embarrassingly demanded they display. Thankfully, it’s solid and even she’ll likely be able to knock somebody out with it, even with how weak she is. She moves towards the door and stands off to the side, ready to hit whoever enters the second they manage to break through the door._

_And they will break through the door. Of this she is sure. She can already hear the wood starting to splinter under the weight of the men outside._

_She glances over at her mom, relieved to see that she’s managing to hold it together. They will both need to be on full alert if they are going to stand any sort of chance against the men that are after them._

_“YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM US!” one of the men says, his voice distorted by a modulator._

_She wonders if that means they aren’t here to kill them. You don’t worry so much about protecting your identity when your victims won’t live long enough to tell anyone. If they are here to kidnap her, Oliver will need a way to find her. It’s not like she has a tracker handy to throw in her shoe like she makes the team do when they are out on missions._

_If they take her, what are the chances of her ever being returned alive? Slim?_

_She closes her eyes and tries not to picture how mutilated Adam Cohen and Aaron Levy’s bodies had been when the police had finally found them._

_She is not going to die. She’d pressed the panic button. Not only was SCPD alerted and on their way, Oliver, Digg, and Thea had been alerted as well. Somebody was going to be here soon to save them. She just had to stay alive long enough for them to rescue her._

_The door continues to splinter under the weight of the men throwing themselves at it. She tries not to listen to any of the slurs thrown at them, but her mom’s shocked gasp makes it hard to ignore._

_Hadn’t Oliver discussed upping her security? Why hadn’t she asked for a personal body guard the second she knew who The Final Order was targeting?_

_“The building security should be here by now, at least,” her mom says._

_“Yeah, I’m guessing they are probably already dead,” she says, realizing that was likely what all the gunshots earlier were from._

_She jumps as the door makes one big crack. That’s it. One more hit and it’s going to give way._

_“I love you,” she whispers to her mom, praying it won’t be the last chance she gets to say it._

_The door bursts open and Felicity doesn’t think before swinging. She knocks one man over the head as her mother shoots him. He falls to the floor. She is about to pull back and swing again, but she’s not fast enough. Several more men enter the room and one of them slams her into the wall so hard that she sees stars._

_“Don’t touch her!” her mom yells as she shoots another one of the men._

_Unfortunately, they are drastically outnumbered and it’s not long before her mom is overpowered as well._

_“This is going to be fun,” the man says into her ear before throwing her to the ground._

_He grabs her by the ponytail and begins dragging her out of the room, kicking and screaming. She reaches out for anything to hold onto to stop him from taking her. She grabs onto the doorframe with all of her might, but soon it gives way and is ripped out of the wall._

_“Let go of me!” she screams, trying not to cry at the way her hair is being yanked from her head._

_“Kill the mom, we don’t need her,” another man says._

_“Mom!” Felicity shouts._

_She hears things getting thrown and broken, along with her mother’s screams, but she can’t see what is happening._

_As long as her mom is screaming, she’s still alive, Felicity reminds herself._

_She reaches out and latches onto her attacker’s arms, digging her nails into them and scratching him as deep as she can._

_“Fucking bitch!” he yells, letting go of her and kicking her in the side._

_Felicity can’t stop to think about how much pain she’s in. She has to get away. She scrambles to her feet, but he catches her wrist and pulls her until she hits the wall face first. She hears a sickening crunch that likely means her nose just broke._

_“Go to hell!” she hears her mother yell, followed by another crashing sound._

_The man crowds into her space, pushing her against the wall as he pulls her arms back harshly to stop her from hitting him. She closes her eyes and thinks back to everything she’s ever been taught about self defense. It doesn’t matter that the man is bigger than her. She’s seen Thea get out of worse situations and that girl is tiny. She just has to think._

_She slams her head backwards until it makes contact his is nose and his grip around her looses. She turns around to face him and grabs onto his arm with one hand and his chin with her other. In a move that John had taught her long ago, she pulls inward on his arm and pushes his head until he hits the wall and she is free to run away._

_“Felicity!” her mom yells and several more gunshots go off._

_“Mom!” she cries, but the doorway back to the room is blocked by more men, who are all staring at her like a piece of meat in a lion’s den._

_“What do you want from us?” she asks them, trying to keep her voice from shaking in fear. She can’t let them see how weak she is. She needs them to think that she’s a worthy opponent, someone to approach with caution._

_“I thought that much was obvious,” one of the men says as he pulls out a knife and comes running at her._

_Felicity moves out of the way and uses the man’s momentum to throw him over the railing. He falls to the first floor._

_Felicity turns around, only to be grabbed around the waist and thrown over the balcony as well. The force with which she hits the first floor knocks the wind out of her. She tries to move, but cries out in pain when she does, praying that she hasn’t re-paralyzed herself. It had taken so long to regain her ability to walk._

_“SCPD!” The front door slams open and police officers make their way inside, weapons already raised._

_“My mom and kids are upstairs,” she informs them and most of them make their way towards the stairs._

_“Are you okay, Mrs. Queen?” one of officers comes over to her side._

_She tries to move her legs again and breathes a sigh of relief when she can. She can move, it just hurts like hell. The officer instructs her not to move, but she sits up anyway, looking at the wreckage that has become her living room._

_“Oh my god,” she sucks in a breath at the sight of three dead security guards. Men she’s known for at least the five years that she’s lived her… One of them, Rob, she’s known from back when he used to work for Moira Queen._

_“My family,” Felicity says to the officer, tears rolling down her cheeks._

_What if they’ve managed to kill her mother? What if they’d managed to get to the girls?_

_“Mom?!” she yells, struggling to get to her feet. The officer gives her a hand and continues to hold onto it when it becomes clear that she’s not quite steady enough to hold her own weight._

_“Felicity!” her mother comes running down the stairs. “Oh baby, thank god!”_

_Her mom has mascara running down her face where she’d undoubtedly cried it off. She’s got some scrapes that are bleeding, but nothing that looks like it needs stitches. She’s sure that her mom will have a few bumps and bruises later on, but for the most part, she’s okay._

_They are okay._

_“The girls…” Felicity says, choking back a sob._

_Her mom shakes her head and pulls her into a hug. “They are okay. The men didn’t even know they were there. It’s okay.”_

_Felicity nods and pulls back, moving towards the stairs to go get the girls from where she’d hid them. Each step she takes sends a shooting pain down her spine, but she knows enough about spinal injuries to know that it will pass. Eventually, it will pass._

_“Mrs. Queen, you should wait until all of the perpetrators are apprehended,” the officer informs her, blocking her way upstairs._

_“My children are upstairs,” she says with a harsh glare. “If you think you’re stopping me from going to get them, you’ve got another thing coming.”_

_He’s spared having to argue with her as several SCPD make their way down the stairs with all of the men in handcuffs. She steps out of the way as the men of The Final Order all spit at her and call her foul names. The police lead them all out of the loft and Felicity breathes a sigh of relief knowing that they are safe once more._

_“I’m gonna call Quentin and tell him what happened before he can hear it from one of his old buddies at the precinct,” her mom says._

_Felicity nods and makes her way upstairs where three police officers are still left, standing over the dead body of one of the men who attacked them. Apparently her mom wasn’t lying about her ability to use a gun effectively._

_“Mrs. Queen, I’m sorry, but this is a crime scene,” one of the officers informs her._

_She glares at him, not even bothering to respond as she walks right past him and to the closet. She puts her hand on the lock and waits for it to register her fingerprints. Once it does, the door opens._

_“Momma!” Grace cries out and Felicity barely manages to grab Ella out of her arms before Grace throws herself at Felicity._

_Felicity lowers herself onto the floor, ignoring the way that her back screams in protest. She pulls Grace into her lap. Ella is crying — likely a mix of being hungry and having just been held by a 3-year-old with no idea how to hold an infant._

_“You’re beedin’, Momma,” Grace says, her little hands going up to Felicity’s face._

_“I’m okay,” she reassures her daughter, pulling her in closer to her._

_She knows that her face must be a complete mess. She can taste the blood in the back of her throat as her nose continues to throb. There’s no doubt in her mind that it’s broken. Her glasses are cracked, but thankfully the lenses are still there so she can see. She has bruises up and down her body. Her fingernails are all broken and bleeding from where she’d desperately tried to claw at the floor to get away. Her back will be protesting her every move for at least a week…_

_But she’s alive. She’s alive and she knows that she probably shouldn’t be. If she were anyone else… If she weren’t married to The Green Arrow… She would never have survived this attack._

_“I don’t wanna pay that game again,” Grace sobs into her shoulder._

_“I know, Sweetie,” she says, running her fingers through Grace’s hair, trying to comfort her. “But you were so good. So, so good. I’m proud of you. Okay?”_

_Grace nods but doesn’t say anything as she continues to cry into her shoulder._

_“Why don’t I feed your sister, then we can get out of here,” Felicity says. “We’ll go wherever you want.”_

_“Yeah,” Grace says, sounding miserable. “I want to go see Daddy.”_

_“Okay,” she says. “Here. I’ll call your dad and we can talk to him while I feed Ella.”_

_Grace nods and burrows herself even farther into Felicity’s side. She pulls her phone out of her back pocket, surprised that it hadn’t managed to fall out and even more so that it hadn’t shattered after she’d been thrown from the balcony. She realizes that her designers were right, the new Palmer Smartphones really are the most durable ones on the market._

_She calls Oliver and turns it on speaker before handing the phone to Grace to hold, carefully scooting her off of her lap so that she can nurse Ella._

_“Felicity!” Oliver’s panicked voice comes over the line. “Are you okay? We got the alert, but Digg’s with Thea and I in Coast City for a meeting. We’re on my way, but it’ll probably be another hour. Are you okay? Are the girls okay?”_

_“Daddy!” Grace cries. “Bad men came.”_

_“Where’s Mommy?” he asks. She can hear the fear in his voice._

_“I’m here,” she says quickly, before he can start thinking that she’d been kidnapped or killed. “We’re fine.”_

_“Mommy’s beedin’,” Grace says._

_“What?” he asks._

_“I’m fine,” she reassures him. “Just a little bruised. And I’ve probably got a broken nose.”_

_“Jesus.” She hears the deep sigh he gives, and she knows that he’s probably already blaming himself for not being here when it happened. “Felicity, what happened?” he asks._

_“They came,” she says, not wanting to say who ‘they’ were with their girls right here and police officers within earshot. She knows that Oliver will know who ‘they’ are. “SCPD arrived and is here now. We’re all safe.”_

_“Thank god,” he says. “I’ve been going out of my mind.”_

_“Daddy, come home,” Grace cries. “I’m scared and Momma is hurt.”_

_She can actually hear him suck in a breath, and she knows how much it’s hurting him to be apart from them right now._

_“I’m gonna be there as soon as I can, Baby,” he says. “Your Uncle Digg is driving as fast as he can. Okay?”_

_“Okay,” Grace says, but it sounds anything but._

_“We’ll be fine,” Felicity reassures him._

_“Is that Oliver?” her mom says, stepping into the closet._

_There is a police officer behind them looking about 50 shades of frustrated. She’s sure they’ve both contaminated all sorts of evidence, but she doesn't care. The police have the men that did this in custody and they’d caught them in the act. She’s sure they’ll have enough to put them away._

_Felicity nods._

_“Hey Oliver, I just talked to Quentin,” she says, her voice still a little shaky from all of the adrenaline, but she seem fine. She sounds strong, and that makes Felicity happy. They’d all managed to somehow come out of this relatively unscathed._

_“He wants us to all go over to our place,” her mom tells them. “The police will be here for a few more hours and we really shouldn’t be here.”_

_“That sounds like a good idea,” Oliver says. “He can watch you guys until I can get home.”_

_Under any other situation, Felicity would take this moment to remind him that she doesn’t need anyone to watch her. However, after what had happened today with her daughters and mother in the house? She can’t say she wouldn’t feel better at her mom’s house with Quentin there to look out for them in case The Final Order decided to come back._

_“We’ll see you when you get here okay?” she says._

_“Alright,” he says. “I love you all. I’m glad everyone is okay.”_

_“We love you, too,” she says._

_“I love you, Daddy,” Grace says._

_“We’ll see you soon, Oliver,” her mom says._

_Felicity reaches over and ends the call. Then she looks up at her mom with tired eyes._

_“I’m still not entirely sure what just happened,” her mom says, giving her a pointed look._

_“I don’t know either,” she says._

_Her mom glares at her._

_“You seemed pretty certain you knew who those men were,” she says, her voice a whisper so as not to be overheard by the officers on the other side of the closet door._

_“Mom—”_

_“No, don’t mom me, Felicity,” she says sternly. “You think I haven’t seen Oliver’s tattoo? You think I don’t know a Bratva captain when I see one?”_

_“What?” Felicity hisses, her eyes going to the door in a panic._

_“I haven’t said anything because Oliver has always been such a good man for you and the girls,” she says. “And I personally called Anatoly myself to make sure that he wasn’t a threat. But Felicity… If there are men after us because of Oliver’s involvement with the Bratva, you need to tell me.”_

_“That’s not what this is,” she says quickly._

_Her mother doesn’t look like she believes her._

_“Oliver isn’t in the Bratva anymore… it was something that happened while he was away on that island and it’s over now. I can’t tell you how I know this at the moment…” she looks to the door to signal that they shouldn’t be having this conversation while there are still police officers in the loft. “But those men weren’t here because of Oliver. They were here because of me.”_

_Her mom crosses her arms and looks like she wants to say more, but thankfully doesn't. At least for the time being._

_“Thank you,” she says, causing her mom to roll her eyes._

_“You are telling me what’s happening the second we get to my house,” she says._

_Felicity nods, understanding that it’s probably long past time she finally told her mother what it is that her and Oliver do at night._

_“The police still need to take your statement,” her mom tells her as she hands Ella over to her mom and slowly stands back up. “I’ll get a bag together for everyone while you do that. You all can stay at my place tonight.”_

_She nods in agreement and steps out into the bedroom, again. Thankfully, the dead body has been taken away. That’s not a sight she really wants her 3 year old daughter seeing in her nightmares. There are men taking pictures of the damage and collecting evidence._

_“Mrs. Queen, if you’re ready to give your statement?” one of the officers asks her._

_“Of course,” she agrees._

_It takes about a half an hour to talk to the police and get the girls ready to go. One of the officers has offered to transport them to her mom’s place, and they graciously accept the offer. Neither one of them is overly fond at the idea of being alone right now. They get two carseats setup and soon they are on their way across town._

_“You’re going to make a left up here,” her mom directs the officer, but he ignores her and continues to drive straight._

_“That was the turn,” her mom says, looking confused._

_The officer pulls off to the side of the road. Felicity doesn’t think anything of it. She’s sure he’s just getting out of the way to let some other cars past before he makes a U-turn. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the officer stabs her mom._

_Felicity cries out at the same time as her mom screams. She has no time to think. The officer is turning around and pointing a gun at Grace. She throws her body in front of her daughter’s and immediately feels a stabbing pain in her back as she’s shot._

_Then everything goes black._

****

**2026**

Oliver paces back and forth in the kitchen, trying to contain the rage that is building inside of him. The last thing that he wants is to go off when his daughters are in the other room. He just can’t believe her. He’d called Felicity’s office to talk to her about what time she wanted to set up Grace and Ella’s parent teacher conferences for, and instead of being able to talk to Felicity like he thought he would, Anna had informed him that she’d left for the day. When he pressed her for more information, he found out that she’d left with Tomo Kato. 

Felicity is still working with Team Arrow. At this very minute, she’s with them and he can’t do anything about it. She’s not answering her phone and he can’t trace her phone because tracing phones is _Felicity’s job._

He’d never learned how to do that. 

He’d never _needed_ to learn how to do that because he’d never imagined there would ever be a time when either one of them wouldn’t be working together. 

He’s such an idiot. He should have realized last night how serious she was. She’d told him that she wasn’t going to stop. He’d just prayed that it was something said in the heat of the moment… That she’d had some time to cool off and she’d come to her senses. 

God, he’d thought that talking to both him and Diggle had made her see some sort of reason. 

Why did he have to go and fall in love with the most stubborn woman on the planet? 

“Do I even want to know?” Thea asks as she walks into the kitchen, Roy right behind her. 

“Felicity is working with the new Team Arrow,” he grumbles. 

“Blondie joined the good ‘ol NTA, huh?” Roy says, reaching around him to grab a beer out of the fridge. “Good for her.” 

Oliver shoots him a cold glare. 

“I mean… how dare she,” he says, not in the least bit sincere, causing Oliver to roll his eyes. Roy and Thea share a significant look. 

“Do you have any idea the kind of danger that she’s in right now?” he asks. 

“Do you?” Roy says. “Cause no offense, but she’s always been pretty capable of taking care of herself.” 

“Really? Is that why she got kidnapped before? Or why she was shot and nearly paralyzed? Or how about—”

“How about we don’t do this,” Thea says. “I know you’re upset right now, so you don’t realize what a sexist ass you sound like, but just because some bad things have happened doesn’t mean she’s incompetent.” 

“Of course not, but—” 

“But nothing,” Thea cuts him off. “John was put in a coma and he never had to defend his position on the team. Just because you love her and want to protect her, doesn’t mean you get to re-write history. She’s in exactly the same amount of danger now as she’s always been. You didn’t have a problem with it when it was you she was running coms for.” 

“Yes, but those kids won’t have her back. They barely know her,” he says, annoyed that she doesn’t see the main difference between then and now is that he was there to protect her back then.

“I find it hard to believe that they aren’t looking out for her,” Thea says. “So why don’t we just talk about what you’re really upset about.” 

“What am I really upset about?” he asks, knowing she’ll tell him even if he doesn’t. 

“You’re upset because she went back without you,” Thea says.

Isn’t that the truth? 

Isn’t that exactly what has had his stomach twisting into knots ever since he’d heard her voice over Canary’s coms? Of course he is worried about her. He is terrified that The Final Order is back and Felicity seems to have little concern over what that means for her. However, it is more than that. He could get past that… He’ll just get more security for her and make sure that she is protected. 

Putting more bodyguards on her though wouldn’t fix the real problem. 

The problem is that Felicity doesn’t seem to need him anymore. She doesn’t need him as her husband. She doesn’t want him to protect her. She has another group of heroes to help. 

Oliver no longer fits into her life. 

“I’m only seeing positives here,” Roy says. 

Oliver thinks he might actually punch him in the face. Or perhaps he’ll go grab his old bow and arrow out of the closet and shoot him in the leg again. 

“She left the team because she was feeling like a monster right?” Roy says. “Seems to me, that if she’s ready to go back to work, she’s feeling better. So maybe you two can finally make up.” 

Thea points at Roy and raises her eyebrows at Oliver, like he’s somehow made a good point. 

“No.” He shakes his head. “You guys don’t get it. She doesn’t want to love me anymore. Those were her exact words. And she’s not doing this because she’s suddenly stopped blaming herself. She’s still drowning in guilt and thinks that somehow because of what happened, it’s her job alone to take on The Order.” 

“So help her,” Thea says. “All I’ve heard for the last five years is how much you still love her.”

“I _do_ ,” he says. “But she doesn’t want me, Thea. She doesn’t need me anymore.” 

“That’s ridiculous and we all know it,” she says. “I don’t care what she says to you, she still loves you and more importantly? She still needs you. She’s just lost. I think we all know what that feels like.” 

“Three days ago, you were trying to convince me to date other women,” he says. 

“Three days ago, Felicity was dating other people and it looked like you guys were years from ever working out your problems,” she argues. “You are such an idiot, Ollie.” 

“Excuse me?” he says, outraged. 

What does she know about any of it? Was she there when Felicity pushed him away last night? Was she there when she had several opportunities to tell him how she really feels about him and refused to do so? She has no idea how he feels. She doesn’t know what he is going through. 

“You are mad at Felicity for going back into the field without telling you,” she says. “Which is completely insane because you and John have been working cases without telling any of us...”

“What are you talking about?” he asks, trying to play dumb. 

Thea rolls her eyes at him. “You think I wouldn’t notice that half of our security was missing yesterday because you had Digg send them over to the Glades? I’m not an idiot! But that’s besides the point.”

“Make it fast,” he says, glaring at her. He’s not in the mood for this. He’s upset enough with Felicity, he doesn’t want to get into it with Thea, too.

“You’re hurt because you thought that Felicity would come running to you when she was ready. However, you’re missing the point. She’s not just going to come back, not on her own.” 

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Oliver asks, doing his best to keep his frustration in check and not yell. He doesn’t want the girls to overhear them. 

“Fight for her,” Thea says, exasperated. 

“I have,” he says through gritted teeth. “It doesn’t work.” 

“No, literally suit up and fight for her,” Thea says. “Don’t let her do this on her own, because she can and she will.” 

“If she doesn’t need me, why would I go back?” he asks. 

“Because it’s what you do,” she says. “I have been watching you both sit on the sidelines for years while other people do your job for you. I haven’t said anything because I thought you guys would realize it’s not where you belong. Ollie, this isn’t you. Being a hero is in your blood. I understood when you took a step back out of respect for what Felicity was going through, but it doesn’t make any sense… not anymore. You two can’t repair things while both of you are still broken.” 

“She’s right dude,” Roy says. “You’ve got hero in your veins.” 

“I’m not a hero,” he argues, shaking his head. 

“What is it that Felicity used to always say? Heroes can’t see it?” Roy asks.

“Real heroes rarely call themselves that,” Oliver says, the phrase rolling off of his tongue like it hasn’t been years since he’s heard her say it. 

Thea smiles at him. “You guys were teammates before you were ever lovers. Maybe what you need is to go back to the thing that always worked between you even when nothing else did.” 

“I’d listen to Thea on this one,” Roy says. “She’s kind of the expert on repairing hopeless relationships.” 

“Our relationship was never hopeless,” she says to Roy, giving him a playful glare. “And neither is theirs.” 

“So I’m just supposed to go pull my old suit out of storage and what? Chase down bad guys again?” 

The idea is completely ridiculous, but Roy and Thea are looking at him like he’s an idiot. Like that’s exactly what he’s supposed to do. 

He’s really not sure if Thea is right, but if nothing else, he can’t let Felicity go out there without him. Somebody has to look out for her and make sure she doesn’t get herself killed. 

“I don’t even know where she is right now,” Oliver argues, but he’s already mentally going through his closet to try and remember where he’d put his boots. 

“Hm, well let me solve that for you,” Thea says pulling her phone out of her pocket. 

“She won’t pick up,” he says, rolling his eyes. As if calling Felicity to ask her where she was, wasn’t the first thing he’d tried. 

“I’m not calling Felicity,” Thea says with a smirk. “Hey… I need a favor,” she says to whoever picks up on the other line.

He waits as Thea talks to whoever it is — and he can only guess that she’s talking to Miyo Kato — The Green Arrow herself. He knows that Thea has a contact within the team that they call whenever the city needs an extra hand. He’s always assumed it was Miyo that Thea talked to, but he’d never bothered to ask her too many questions about it at the time. 

“Felicity is parked outside of Glades Memorial and Team Arrow is currently at that apartment complex that got hit.” 

“What are they doing there?” Roy asks confused. 

“I don’t know,” Thea says. “But considering Oliver and Digg have been looking into the plane crash, I have a feeling that he knows.” 

He doesn’t know exactly what they are doing there, but he has some ideas. There was a reason he’d sent Digg to investigate the building, and it seemed that the Arrow Team might have solved that mystery for him. 

Who was he kidding. They had Felicity on their side. Of course they’d solved that mystery. 

“Watch the girls for me,” he says. 

It was time to suit up. 

****

“There’s security,” Miyo informs them over the coms. 

“There’s no security,” Felicity responds, trying not to roll her eyes. “There’s no power in the building anymore. The fire department cut it until they could clear it.” 

“No, there’s _actual_ security,” Miyo tells them. 

“So deal with it,” Tomo says, giving Felicity a confused look. 

“Unless Felicity wants us to take out her friend, I’m gonna say that’s not an option,” Riley says. 

“What do you mean my friend?” Felicity asks. 

She doesn’t know anyone that works over here. The only person she knows that even lives over here is Manuel and she’d already checked that he was indeed at his hotel in uptown. 

“Big black guy? Likes to kick Order ass and take names?” Riley says. “He was at City Hall with the mayor yesterday.”

“Digg?” she asks, shocked. 

What is Digg doing here? 

“Do you want us to take him out?” Miyo asks. “I’ve got some tranq darts, they are fairly harmless.” 

Felicity snorts. Yes, harmless until Digg wakes up and decides to hunt them down. 

“I’ll take care of it,” she says, moving to step out of the car. 

“What are you going to do?” Tomo asks. 

“Talk to him,” she says with a shrug. What else would she do? 

As she walks the two blocks it takes to get to the apartment complex, a few things become clear to her. Digg is the head of Oliver’s security and he’s well compensated for it. He doesn’t have a second job. If he is here, it’s because _Oliver_ had security on the building. Which really could only mean one thing. 

“He’s such a hypocrite,” she mumbles to herself. 

Had he really been lecturing her just last night about working without telling him when he has clearly been working his own case? How long ago did Oliver figure out that the plane crash wasn’t an accident and put the pieces together? 

Thinking of Oliver and Digg working together hurt. Sure, she might have quit the team five years ago, and they’d have had no idea that she was interested in getting involved again… but that was no excuse for not telling her yesterday, after they realized that she was back in the game. 

Did they not want her? Is that why they were both trying to tell her that it was a bad idea to help Team Arrow? Did they think she couldn’t handle it? 

Maybe they couldn’t trust her after what had happened… That was probably it, she realized. They both tried to tell her that she wasn’t to blame for what happened, but she knew they were full of it. There was nobody else to blame but her. 

She can’t think about that now. Right now, she needs to focus on the mission. She needs to make sure that the research for the fusion reactor is still safe. In the wrong hands, that research could kill millions. 

She closes her eyes and takes several deep breaths, trying to clear her mind. When she opens her eyes again, she’s feeling better. Stronger. 

If they didn’t trust her, that was just fine. She had her own team to work with and she’d prove them wrong. 

She notices an unfamiliar man in a black suit standing at the front door and walks up to him. 

“This is private property,” the man tells her, his hand reaching for his belt, where he’s undoubtedly got his gun. 

“Hi, you work for the mayor, don’t you?” she says, her voice sugary sweet to hide the rage that she’s feeling. 

“I’m sorry?” he says. 

“I bet. Now, get on your com and tell John Diggle that Felicity Smoak is here to see him and she’s not thrilled.” 

“Um…” the security guard clearly has no idea what to do as he looks left and right for somebody to come and rescue him. 

“That won’t be necessary, thank you,” a modulated voice says behind her. 

She freezes as her mind flashes back to another time… a memory of several men storming into her home and attacking them. The Final Order used modulators to hide their identities from their victims. She swings around, ready to run, when she’s met with a familiar hood and a whole lot of green leather. 

She instantly starts laughing hysterically. “Of course,” she says. 

Oliver manages to convince the security guard to abandon his post without calling for backup, and soon they are left alone. 

“I should have seen this coming,” she says, unable to stop laughing at the sheer hypocrisy of it all. “You are so full of it.” 

Oliver reaches up to turn his voice modulator off. 

“Felicity,” he says her name and it only makes it worse, because he says her name like he used to and that just sets her off. 

“What are you doing here?” she asks him. 

“What do you think?” he says, not unkindly. “If you’re determined to do this, then you’re not going to do this alone.” 

She glares at him. Any other time, she might have bought it, but not now. Not after she’d seen his own security team working the building. She’s blonde, but she’s not dumb. 

“Really?” she scoffs. “Cause I’m pretty sure you’re only here because Digg’s here. You guys are working the night scene together again, right? You didn’t mean to run into me tonight and now that you have, you have to make it seem like you haven’t been playing vigilante without me so you don’t look like the world’s greatest ass.” 

“That’s not what happened,” he says, his tone frustrated. 

“So Digg isn’t here?” she asks, crossing her arms, settling in for a fight. 

Oliver looks up and tilts his head like he always does when he’s caught in a lie. 

“I thought so,” she says. “Why don’t we get him so that we can all have a Original Team Arrow meeting. Or did you forget I was part of the team.” 

“I didn’t forget,” he says. “But since when did you want to be part of the team?” 

“Felicity,” Miyo says over the coms. “What’s happening? We are all waiting for your cue.” 

“Go inside, they won’t stop you,” she says to them, glaring at Oliver. “Will they?” 

“Well I don’t know, since I didn’t actually come here with Digg,” he admits. She only glares at him harder. “But I can give him a call…” 

“Why don’t you do that,” she says with a sneer. 

She watches as Oliver calls Digg on the phone and tells him to call off the security team. He informs them that the Green Arrow needs access to the building. 

“Perfect,” she says when he hangs up the phone. “Now, I’ve got a mission to get back to.” 

She goes to step around him and head back to the car, but Oliver grabs her around the waist and stops her from leaving. 

“Felicity, I promised you when I hung up this mask that I wouldn’t put it back on and I didn’t. Not until tonight,” he says. 

He’s close enough that she can feel his breath on her ear and it sends a shiver down her spine.

“Then how do you explain your security working the building?” she asks. 

“I did that two days ago, because Digg and I thought there was something suspicious about the plane crash. Once we figured out what it was, I was going to pass the information along to either SCPD or The Green Arrow.” 

She wants to believe him. It would be so easy to just accept his word as truth and move on. They don’t lie to each other, that was one thing they’d decided long ago never to do. Except, she’d lied to him when she agreed to help Tomo and the others, so she knows exactly how easy it would have been for Oliver to lie to her. 

“Well now it looks like The Green Arrow is you,” she whispers. “Looks like you didn’t need me there to watch over you after all,” she says, hating how she’s having to hold back tears. 

It’s been close to five years since they got divorced. It shouldn't still hurt this bad. She shouldn’t feel so betrayed that he’d been working a case with Digg and hadn’t told her. Wasn’t that exactly what she had been doing? Why did what he’d done feel so much worse than what she’d done?

“What apartment number are we looking for again?” Riley asks, her voice surprising Felicity. She’s almost forgotten she still had the coms on. 

“His apartment is 904. You’re going to look for a black safe in his bedroom,” she tells them. “Be careful. The building still hasn’t been cleared for people.” 

“Great!” Sean says sarcastically. “I’ve always wanted to die by way of building collapse.” 

“Nobody is dying,” Blayne says, and Felicity doesn’t have to see the girl to know that she’s rolling her eyes. 

“Felicity,” Oliver says, giving her a concerned look. “Have you heard anything I said?” 

“Go home, Oliver,” she says. 

“You think I’m going to go home while you’re still out in the field?” he asks, his tone disbelieving. 

“I’m not even going to ask,” she hears John say as he approaches the two of them. “I don’t want to know why you are suited up, or what Felicity and her team are doing here. I’m just going to let you know that I’m calling it a night and head home.” 

“So this morning, when you told me that none of us were very good at being retired, this is what you meant,” she asks John. 

“I don’t know what this is,” John says, pointing at Oliver. “But yes. None of us are very good at staying out of trouble and perhaps it’s time we stopped pretending we are.” 

“What are you saying?” Oliver asks him. 

“I’m saying that the reason I was upset with Felicity when you told me what she’d been doing, was because we all know that she should be working with you,” John says, giving her a pointed look. “And it’s long past time the two of you sorted out your feelings and stopped avoiding your issues.” 

“John—” she starts to defend herself, but he holds up his hands, telling her he doesn’t want to hear it. 

“I’m going home,” he says. “I’m trusting you two to act like adults and have a real conversation.” 

They both watch as John makes his way down the street and to his car. 

“We probably should talk,” Oliver says. “I shouldn’t have come at you so angry yesterday. I was just surprised that you’d been working with The Green Arrow — the other Green Arrow — and hadn’t told me. I was also scared, but I shouldn’t have yelled.” 

She turns to look at him. To really look him over. She studies his face, and sees nothing but sincerity there. Perhaps, she’d jumped to conclusions too fast and was too quick to anger this evening after their argument yesterday. 

“I’m sorry too,” she says. “I should have told you what I was doing last week when I was first asked to help—” 

“Felicity!” Miyo calls out to her. “I think we found it.” 

She holds her hand up apologetically to Oliver, silently asking him to wait a minute. 

“Take a picture of it and send it to me,” she tells them, not wanting them to drag a safe all the way down 9 flights of stairs if it wasn’t the right one. 

She hears them mumbling to each other then her phone vibrates in her pocket. She pulls it out to look at the picture they’ve sent. She zooms in closely to really look at the safe. Upon first glance, it looks like any other safe, but the one they were looking for she’d customized herself to make it more secure. 

The picture is dark and grainy, so it’s hard to tell, but she can just make out the Palmer Tech logo on it. 

“That’s it,” she informs them. “Don’t try and open it. You won’t be able to. Bring it down.” 

“This thing is heavy,” Riley complains. “We’d need like 3 of Sean to get it down the stairs.” 

“Or one Green Arrow,” she says, smiling at Oliver. 

He rolls his eyes at her but he’d already headed inside before she even has to ask. 

“No,” Miyo says. “I’m not going to be lifting this thing. My strength comes from using my opponent's weight against them. I’m not going to be able to lift this.” 

“I’m talking about the other Green Arrow,” Felicity says, trying hard not to smile at the thought of Oliver putting on a mask again. 

She’s always known that this day would come, despite what they had promised each other. The mask is part of who he is. Oliver Queen is a hero and everyone knows it. 

But thinking about Oliver in his suit is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from fantasizing about Oliver in his suit and that isn’t an option. Mask on and hood up or not… All of the reasons they’d gotten divorced are still there. She can’t let herself fall back into Oliver, because he’d let her. She knows that much. She needs to be strong. 

“So your husband and my boyfriend are on their way down,” Blayne says, walking out the front door with Miyo and Riley, meeting Felicity on the sidewalk. 

“He’s not my husband,” she tells them. 

“Try selling that story somewhere else,” Riley says with a smirk. “We aren’t buying it.” 

“We used to be married,” she says. “We aren’t anymore. It’s not that difficult to understand.” 

Felicity rolls her eyes, but doesn't attempt to argue with them any further. They’ve made up their minds and nothing she says will change them. 

Oliver and Sean eventually make their way out of the building, both of them clearly out of breath and sweating in their leather suits. 

“You can set it down for now,” she says, realizing how much they are struggling with it. “I’ll get it open and the research out, then we can figure out what to do with the safe.” 

“You couldn’t have saved us the 9 flights of stairs and come up with that plan earlier?” Sean asks, annoyed. 

“She wasn’t going into that building,” Oliver says. “It isn’t safe.” 

“Oh yeah, not married at all,” Blayne whispers into her ear and she shrugs her off. 

Felicity kneels down in front of the safe and begins the long process of getting it open. First she puts in a code. Then she has it scan her fingerprints. When they are accepted, she puts in another code, which triggers a voice command. She then puts in one last code on the keypad, after which a small hatch opens up to reveal a combination lock. She puts in the combination and finally, the safe unlocks and she’s able to open the latch. 

“Paranoid much?” Riley asks. 

“You would be too if you realized what this is,” she says. 

She reaches in and pulls out the contents of the safe. Inside, there are 2 different laptops, an external hard drive, 3 USB sticks, and a very large stack of paperwork. She takes all of the contents and puts them carefully into her messenger bag. 

“What is it?” Oliver asks. 

“Something we’re not going to talk about in public,” she tells them, giving them all her most serious look. “Ever. Nobody can know this exists.” 

“So, what are we going to do about the safe?” Sean asks. “Because I’m not carrying that thing again, no way.” 

“Felicity and I will take care of it,” Oliver tells them. “You all can call it a night.” 

“They can?” Felicity asks, looking at him curiously. What were the two of them going to do? He couldn’t possibly think that she’d be able to lift the damn thing.

“They can,” Oliver says pointedly. “Thanks guys.” 

They say their goodbyes and head back down the road to where Tomo is waiting in the van for them. She can still hear them all over the com system that none of them had turned off. 

“So… honestly what is the plan?” she asks, looking down at the safe. “Because I know that _you know_ I can’t lift that.” 

“Of course not,” he says. “I’ll call one of my guys to come get it tonight. The important stuff is in your bag, it’s not the safe.” 

“True,” she says. “But wherever I end up hiding this will still need to be protected and that safe is our best best.” 

“You’ll get your safe back,” he promises. “I just want—” 

Whatever Oliver was going to say is cut off by the sound of an explosion closeby. 

“No!” she yells, instantly knowing where it had come from as she can hear the fire in her earpiece. 

She takes off in the direction of the car, where she can see a large fire. Oliver is able to run faster than she can, so he sprints ahead. 

“Tomo!” she yells, tears already streaming down her face. “Miyo! Riley!” 

Nobody responds to her, but she can hear somebody moaning in pain. At least one of them is still alive. Oliver stops before he can get to the car and she cries out. 

“Help them!” 

He shakes his head, grabbing her around the middle as she catches up to him. 

“It’s too late,” he says, sadly. 

“No, it’s not!” she cries. “I can still hear somebody. They are still breathing. Oliver, we have to help them!” 

“Miyo,” she hears Riley’s cry. It’s faint, but it’s there. 

“Riley!” 

She moves to dart under his arms to go save her, but he grabs her around the middle and throws her to the ground, his body covering hers as another two explosions go off. This time, they are close enough to feel the heat from it and her ears start ringing. She glances up at Oliver and can see his lips moving, but she can’t hear him. 

He rolls off of her and pulls her to her feet. The van is engulfed in flames. Any chance that any of them might have survived the first explosion was now completely vanished. 

“No!” she calls out as she starts to cry. 

Oliver has that look of confusion that he always has whenever something awful happens and he can’t make himself believe it. He pulls her into his arms as she sobs into his shoulder. 

How could this have happened? Who could have done this?

Oliver pulls back from her and tugs on her hand, but she refuses to go. She can’t just leave them here. She was supposed to protect them. They weren’t supposed to die on her watch… 

“We need to get out of here,” Oliver says, and she reads his lips more than she can actually hear him. 

She shakes her head, no. She can’t just abandon them. She moves towards the wreckage, unsure of what she will do, but knowing that she needs to do something.

Oliver pulls her back forcefully as the flames reach a nearby car and it explodes as well. 

Warm, familiar hands find their way to her cheeks, forcing her to look at Oliver. 

“It’s not safe here,” he says, frantically. 

He doesn’t wait for a response. He grabs her behind the back and the knees and picks her up like she weighs nothing. 

“I can’t leave them!” she yells, pushing at him, demanding him to let her down. 

He doesn’t. He carries her down the street until they are at least 10 blocks away. When they finally do stop, she realizes he’s coughing heavily. They are both coughing heavily. Had she been coughing this whole time? 

Her throat is swollen and her lungs feel as like they are on fire. She gasps for air, finding it hard to breathe. Her eyes itch and her vision is blurred. 

Oliver lifts up her chin to look up her nose, then opens her mouth to see into her throat, apologizing for manhandling her. 

“You need to go to the hospital,” he tells her. “You’ve got smoke inhalation. We both do.” 

“Oliver, Tomo… Miyo… We can’t leave them back there,” she cries. 

He wraps his arms around her shoulders tightly, trying to provide her some sort of comfort, but it doesn’t work. All of the Arrow team is dead and she can't do anything to help them. 

“They’re gone,” he says, his own eyes welling up with tears. “You can’t do anything. We need to get you to the hospital before you—” 

She doesn’t know what he had been about to say. The world starts to shift around her and she loses her balance, falling backwards and Oliver catches her around the middle. 

“I was supposed to be with them,” she tells him as her vision starts to darken. “I was supposed to be in that car.” 

“Felicity!” he yells. 

It’s the last thing she hears before she passes out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, feedback is much appreciated as this is my first multi-chapter Arrow fic and I'm still trying to figure out what works and doesn't! Thanks to all of you who have written comments on this, it really does mean the world to me, you have no idea! 
> 
> Special thanks to my girl Emma (emisfritish) as this fic would't exist without her continued support.


	6. Ashes to Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver reacts to the news that Felicity has been kidnapped and Donna and the kids attacked. Meanwhile, in 2026, Felicity struggles to figure out what to do now that New Team Arrow is dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to @emisfristish for the beta & cheerleading!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2021**

_A sea of flashes blind him as he pushes his way through a crowd of reporters. Oliver can hear their questions, but they don’t get a reaction out of him. He can’t be bothered with his public image right now. He can’t be the mayor right now._

_He’s falling apart just trying to be a husband and a father._

_She’s not gone, he tells himself, shaking his head in disbelief. This isn’t real._

_Thea reaches the door first and opens it for him, pushing him through and away from the chaos._

_“Where are they?” Oliver asks._

_He doesn’t need to say who ‘they’ are. A nurse is immediately on her feet._

_“I’ll show you upstairs, Mr. Mayor,” she says._

_He doesn’t follow her at first. He should be out there looking for Felicity and hunting down the bastard that thought it was okay to target his family. It’s not until Thea puts her hand on his arm and Digg reminds him that he needs to check on his daughters... That Felicity would never forgive him... That he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t make sure they were okay first._

_He glances down at his phone for the thousandth time, triple checking that it was indeed Quentin Lance that called him to tell him his wife is missing. That his mother-in-law has been stabbed and his children drugged. His caller ID reminds him clear as day — this is happening._

_There are people talking, but he isn’t processing any of it. It’s like he’s stuck in a fog. The nurse is telling him something, and he’s sure that it’s important, but it isn’t registering in his mind._

_He’s going to reach the second floor and Felicity will be standing there with a warm smile. She’ll reassure him with a kiss and then give him a hard time for worrying about her. Felicity will be there. She has to be._

_He can hear Grace’s screams before they even reach the top of the stairs and he has to remind himself to breathe. He has to count out each inhale and exhale, or he won’t do it._

_“Mr. Queen?” the nurse says, giving him a concerned look. He doesn’t pay her any attention._

_He follows the sound of Grace’s screams, pushing past nurses, doctors, and uniformed officers that try to talk to him._

_When he enters the room, his daughter is crying out for him in terror as somebody holds her down on the bed. His mind snaps back into focus and he’s instantly on the attack. He grabs the woman restraining Grace and has her up against a wall before he even stops to assess the situation._

_“Don’t touch her!” he yells, his voice low and harsh._

_“Oliver, woah, calm down,” Lance says to him, while he and Digg literally pull him off of the woman. “They are just trying to help.”_

_“Breathe, man,” Digg says. “Grace is okay, just breathe.”_

_Thea moves into his line of vision and puts her hands on his shoulders, breathing with him until he calms down enough to realize his mistake. He’s just attacked a nurse._

_“I’m sorry,” he says repeatedly, and the nurse gives him a shaky smile, but he doesn’t miss the way that she leaves the room and doesn’t return._

_He tries to move to Grace’s bedside, but Lance and Digg still have him restrained._

_“I’m good,” he says. When they give him a doubtful look, he adds, “I promise.”_

_They nod and must be satisfied enough with his response because they let him go._

_“Grace,” he says her name like it’s a prayer and moves to pick her up._

_He cringes at the way her nails dig into his back through his shirt as she wraps her arms around him as tight she she possibly can. Her little body is trembling which makes him feel a million times worse than he already did. How was he not there to protect them?_

_“Where’s Momma?” she says, barely intelligible through her sobbing._

_“I’ll find her,” he promises, choking back his own tears. Grace needs him to be strong. “I’m going to bring her home.”_

_“Oliver—” Lance starts to say, but the look Oliver shoots him silences him._

_“Where is Ella?” he asks, as Grace starts gagging at how hard she is crying. He rubs her back and tries his best to comfort her, trying not to think about how she may never be okay again... not if they can’t find Felicity…_

_“She’s in the nursery getting checked out,” Lance tells him. “They are running some tests on both Grace and Ella to make sure that they are okay.”_

_His eyes must convey panic at the thought of the girls being hurt, because Lance instantly raises his hands to calm him. “The girls are fine. They were drugged, but physically they are fine. It’s just a precaution. They were lucky. Not… I just… Donna was…”_

_Lance’s eyes fill with tears as he struggles to find words, and Oliver instantly feels like a jackass for not asking sooner._

_“How is she?” Thea asks, beating him to it._

_“In surgery,” Lance says. “The doctors seem confident they can stop the bleeding and repair the damage to her organs, but they won’t know for sure until they are in there.”_

_“She’ll be okay,” Thea says, rubbing Lance’s back in comfort. Lance nods in agreement, but Oliver knows the look on his face. The man is remembering all of the people he’s lost over the years and is mentally preparing himself for the worst._

_Oliver can’t think like that. He can’t afford to think that he’ll lose Donna. He can’t even fathom losing Felicity. No. The doctors will fix Donna and he is going to find Felicity. He needs to be out there. Wherever she is, she is counting on him to save her._

_“I need to see Ella,” he tells Digg._

_He needs to make sure that his daughters are both okay. Then he is going to burn this city to the ground if that’s what it takes to find the men who took Felicity._

_Digg nods in understanding and tells him that he’ll go talk to a nurse about bringing Ella to them._

_“The policeman took Momma,” Grace cries into his shoulder. Her tears don’t seem to have an end, but at least the trembling is going down now that she’s in his arms._

_Oliver sucks in a ragged breath and tries to maintain his cool. Every instinct in his body is telling him to kill. To go out there, find the man that did this, and tear him from limb to limb. The fact that they took Felicity would be reason enough for him to kill them — but they had done more than that. They’d crossed a line that nobody before had dared to. They’d put his daughters in danger, and that was unfathomable._

_A 3 year old is supposed to be scared of boogey men and monsters in her closet, not watching a man posing as a police officer brutally stab her grandmother and kidnap her mother before shooting her up with a tranquilizer. At least Ella is too young to remember any of this. Grace on the other hand, will be scarred for life._

_He holds Grace that much tighter, hating that she will now have memories that will haunt her for the rest of her life. He knows all too well what that’s like and it isn’t the life he’d wanted for her._

_“It wasn’t a policeman, Sweetie,” Lance says._

_“Do they know who it was?” Thea asks, but Lance shakes his head._

_An officer enters the room to talk to Lance, and his presence causes Grace to begin screaming hysterically again as she claws at Oliver in an effort to get away. He turns around so that his body is between her and the police officer and glares at Lance and the police officer until they excuse themselves and step into the hallway._

_“Why is this happening?” he says, not expecting an answer._

_There isn’t one. There’s no good reason why this should be happening to him. Hasn’t he suffered enough? Isn’t this supposed to be his happy ending?_

_“We’re going to get her back,” Thea tells him. “We’re going to find a way, we always do.”_

_“You’re gonna fix it?” Grace asks, looking up at him. He sees the desperation in her eyes, even as young as she is. She needs him to make this better._

_He nods, forcing himself to believe Thea’s words. He doesn't have another option. They can’t lose Felicity. Grace and Ella can’t lose their mother. He can’t lose his wife._

_“Mr. Queen?” a doctor says, entering the room timidly. He thinks back to the nurse that he’s probably traumatized for life and realizes that word has likely spread about his erratic behavior. That’ll be a media nightmare to clean up once this is all sorted out._

_Because this will all get sorted out. They are going to find Felicity._

_“What can we do for you?” Thea asks, taking the lead, for which he is grateful. He’s in no mental state to deal with any of this._

_“I know that Grace is still upset, but it is important that we get some bloodwork done and make sure there’s no ill-effects from the drugs or the needle,” the doctor explains._

_Thea gives him a look, silently asking him if he’s okay with that. He nods. Of course he wants the doctors to check the girls out. He hadn’t meant to pull that nurse off of Grace like that — it had just happened. He’d heard her screams and his body instantly went into overprotective mode._

_Oliver attempts to set Grace down on the bed, but her arms and legs are around him in a steel vice. He flinches at the thought that she is so terrified that she can’t even let go of him._

_He closes his eyes as he has to rein in tears._

_His family had needed him and he wasn’t there. Not once but twice they had been attacked and he hadn’t been there to stop it._

_“The doctors need to take a look at you,” he whispers. If he tries to speak any more than that, he’ll be a sobbing mess._

_“It’s okay,” the doctor tells him. “It’s actually better if you hold her. She’ll be more comfortable. Why don’t you have a seat on the bed and try to get her to give me her hand.”_

_He sits down on the bed. Grace, seemingly confident that he’s not going to go anywhere, rearranges herself on his lap until she’s cradled in his arms._

_“The doctor is going to do a little test to make sure that you’re all right,” Thea explains, sitting down on the bed next to them._

_He’s so happy that at least one of them is calm, because he doesn’t understand how he’s even still standing at the moment under the weight of everything that has happened._

_“He’s just going to take your arm and do a little test,” Thea says grabbing Grace’s arm gently and holding it out to the doctor. The second Grace spots the needle, she instantly starts to panic and pull her arm back, but Thea won’t let her go._

_“It’s okay. Look at your dad. Don’t look at the doctor. He’s going to help you, not hurt you. Your daddy would never let him hurt you, okay? Just look at him.”_

_Oliver lifts his hand up to wipe the tears from her face, then shields her view so that the only thing she can see is him._

_“You’re safe. I won’t let anything hurt you,” he says, trying not to think about how empty that promise is._

_He’s been telling her that since she was a baby and today he’s epically failed._

_What kind of hero is he supposed to be if he can’t even protect the most important people in his life?_

_He whispers a lullaby as the doctor does his work, soothing his baby girl the best way he can given the situation. She flinched when the doctor inserts the needle to draw her blood, but she doesn’t begin screaming again, which he’ll take as a win._

_“The bad man hurted me,” Grace says, her eyes starting to droop in exhaustion. It looks like all of the screaming and crying has finally tired her out._

_“You’re okay now,” Oliver whispers. “I was so scared for you, but you were so brave. Such a brave, strong girl, just like your Mommy.”_

_“I tried to help Momma,” Grace says through a yawn. “Like you.”_

_“I know,” he says, though he really doesn’t. He has no idea what happened in the back of that police car. He’s not sure he even wants to know the details._

_He kisses her on the forehead as her eyes start to close. “You are such a good kid. I love you so much.”_

_“I love you, too,” she says, her speech slurring as she drifts off._

_He gives her one last squeeze and then moves her to the bed, pulling the covers up around her. He waits to make sure that she’s going to stay asleep. She stirs and curls up into a ball, but otherwise stays asleep._

_“Stay with her,” he orders Thea._

_“Where are you going?” she asks, though she already knows the answer._

_“I’m going to find the son of a bitch,” he says._

_“They don’t leave your sight,” he continues. “Ella sleeps in here and you don’t let anybody near them without some sort of security clearance. This happened because a man posed as a police officer… I don’t want to think about what else they’ll do to… They can’t… I can’t lose them, too.”_

_“Oliver, it’s okay,” she says, holding her hands up to stop him from continuing to ramble. “They are my nieces, I get it. I won’t let anything hurt them. I’ll handle things here. Take Digg with you, I don’t want you facing them alone.”_

_He nods. He’s about to leave, but Thea pulls him into a hug._

_“You’re going to get her back,” Thea says._

_“I will,” he promises._

_He walks into the hallway and looks up at the signs hanging from the ceiling, trying to remember where the nursery is located._

_“Oliver,” Digg says._

_Oliver turns and breathes a sigh of relief as Digg walks towards him, Ella in his arms._

_“Oh thank god,” he says, rushing over to pull her into his own arms._

_He checks her over for any sign of injury, but thankfully, the only marks she seems to have are the single band aid from where the doctors had drawn her blood and a tiny prick mark where she’d obviously been shot with a tranquilizer._

_“They’ve put a rush on the blood work, they should have more information in an hour or so,” Digg tells him._

_Oliver holds Ella close, kissing her repeatedly. She’s not even five weeks old yet and still, she’s survived so much. Ella is going to be a fighter, just like her mother and sister._

_“I don’t know how they got out alive,” Oliver says, the initial haze has finally worn of and he’s starting to process the events of the day. The more he thinks about what has happened, the more surprised he is that the situation wasn’t a million times worse. “They shouldn’t have made it out of the loft alive, much less survived whatever it was that happened next.”_

_“If I know Felicity, there wasn’t a soul alive that was going to hurt Grace or Ella,” Digg says. “She kept them safe.”_

_“Even when it meant she wasn’t.”_

_Somehow, the most beautiful thing about Felicity is also the worst._

_She’s the strongest person he knows. The rest of them are trained fighters. They can take down men twice their size and barely break a sweat. Felicity is different. She’s never taken to fighting no matter how much self-defense they insist on teaching her. She knows the basics, but she’s never going to be somebody they send out into the field. However, she doesn’t cower in a fight._

_When there is danger, she doesn’t hide from it, she runs into it headfirst for the greater good. She’s the girl who will beg Oliver not to save her if it means he has to kill. She’s the one who will let herself get kidnapped by Slade Wilson and stab him in the neck with the cure if it means they can stop him from tearing the city apart. She’s the girl who stands up to the Malcolm Merlyns and Ra’s al Ghuls of the world with no second thought to herself._

_It’s amazing how brave she is when she needs to be. It’s also terrifying._

_“That’s what she has us for,” Digg says. “Lyla has already got ARGUS looking for any sign of her. I’m gonna head out and see if I can’t get any info. It might take longer, but Felicity has shown me how to use facial recognition. I’m gonna see if I can get a head start.”_

_“I won’t be far behind you,” Oliver says. “I just need to hold her a minute longer.”_

_He knows that he needs to get to work. The longer he stays here, the farther away her kidnapper gets and the more time they have to hurt her. However, he also knows that Felicity would never forgive him if he didn’t take care of their children first. They’d made a promise long ago when she first became pregnant with Grace that they would always put the girls first, even over each other._

_He looks down at her sleeping face and thanks god that if nothing else, Grace and Ella are okay. Donna will be okay once the doctors can fix the bleeding. The kidnappers only wanted Felicity — they could have easily killed the rest of them and they didn’t._

_Small miracles._

_“Take all the time you need,” Digg says. “You aren’t alone here. We are going to get her back.”_

_He nods his head in acknowledgement and Digg takes off towards the stairs._

_“I love you so much, baby girl,” he whispers to his sleeping Ella, not wanting to wake her, but needing to say it, nonetheless. He lightly brushes his lips against her forehead as he gently rocks her back and forth._

_As he watches Ella instinctively curl closer to him — as if she can sense that he’s the one holding her, even in her sleep — the world slips away, just for a moment. For the smallest minute of time, the world is just him and his precious, perfect daughter. Holding her close reminds him why he isn’t out there murdering every person with even the slightest affiliation with The Final Order. She is so little, so pure. She deserves a father who isn’t consumed by darkness. Ella and Grace remind him why he pushes so hard to maintain his moral code._

_They are counting on him to continue to fight evil in the light of day._

_What was it that Felicity had once told him? There was no point in being The Green Arrow if he loses himself in the process?_

_“Felicity,” Oliver whispers closing his eyes and picturing his wife. “I need you to be okay. I can’t be the man our girls deserve if you’re not okay. I won’t be able to keep it up.”_

_“Hey, I’m surprised you’re still here,” Lance says._

_Oliver opens his eyes, surprised to see that Lance had managed to sneak up on him, something that would never happen usually. He’s always hyper vigilant. He needs to get his head in the game._

_“I’m just about to leave,” Oliver says, but gestures down to Ella to explain why he hasn’t. Lance nods in understanding._

_“Do you know when Donna will be out of surgery?” Oliver asks._

_“It’ll be at least another couple of hours, you’ve got time,” he says, reading Oliver’s mind. “And she’ll forgive you for not being here.”_

_“I’m not sure she will,” Oliver says with a shaky laugh, once again finding himself near tears as he thinks about Donna. He hasn’t even allowed the fact that his mother-in-law had almost died sink in yet. There was too much else to process. It’s too much._

_“Last time you weren’t at the hospital, you were hurting her baby girl,” Lance says. “This time you not being here will be because you’re looking for her baby girl. She won’t be mad at you.”_

_“She won’t know that,” Oliver says. Donna doesn’t know that he’s the Green Arrow._

_Lance doesn’t say anything, but he can tell by the look on his face that Donna might know more than she’s ever said. Oliver doesn’t know how that makes him feel. It’s certainly not something that he can stop to analyze at the moment._

_“You promise you’ll call me when she’s out?” he asks, reassuring himself that it is actually okay if he leaves. Thea will be watching Grace and Ella and Lance will let him know when Donna is awake. At the moment all of his girls are sleeping and don’t need him._

_Felicity still does._

_“You’re first on the list,” Lance says. “Go bring her back.”_

_Oliver nods and heads back into Grace’s room to hand Ella back to Thea. He hugs his sister one last time before heading out. He is just stepping off the bottom stair when he hears the argument coming from the hospital lobby._

_“You listen here, my daughter has been kidnapped and my granddaughters are in the hospital!” Oliver hears a man’s voice that is vaguely familiar to him, but he hasn’t heard it enough to be sure. He turns the corner and sees Abraham pushing to get past three police officers who are blocking him from leaving the lobby to search for Grace and Ella._

_“You said your name is Abraham Sokolski,” one of the officer’s says. “Felicity Queen’s maiden name is Smoak.”_

_“She has her mother’s last time… I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Abraham yells. He looks like an absolute mess. His grey hair is all over the place, his eyes are bloodshot, and he’s visibly shaking. Oliver doesn’t know the man from Adam, but Oliver knows the look of a desperate parent when he sees one. If he hadn’t already been sure he was Felicity’s father before, this right here would confirm it._

_“Why are you standing here worried about me when you should be out looking for my daughter!” he cries, his voice shaking with both rage and desperation._

_“Sir, we are going to have to ask you to calm down,” one of the police officers says._

_Oliver recognizes the look that passes over Abraham’s face. This is a man who has just lost everything and has nothing left to lose. That look on a former mobster is not something Oliver thinks will end well for the police officers who are by him now, physically restraining Abraham._

_Oliver hurries over and tells the officers to let him go._

_“This is my father-in-law,” he says. “I’ve got it from here.”_

_The officers apologize and leave to give them their privacy. At times, it does pay to be the mayor of the city._

_“What’s happening?” Abraham asks, reaching out to grab his arm. Oliver can feel the man trembling._

_“I don’t know,” he says, honestly._

_“I can’t… I just got her back… She can’t… This isn’t right,” Abraham rambles and each word he says stabs Oliver right in the heart. He can understand how the man is feeling. The thought of losing Felicity… Oliver is feeling everything Abraham is feeling about ten times worse. She is his entire world._

_“We’re going to get her back,” he says, trying to sound reassuring._

_“What about… is Aleksandra okay? Harper and Anabella?” Abraham asks._

_The fact that he even calls Grace by her first name or Ella by her full name just reiterates how little he knows them all. Felicity hadn’t wanted him around the girls yet. She hadn’t trusted him enough to let him into their lives. At the time, he agreed wholeheartedly in keeping Abraham as far away from their family as he could. If he’d had his choice, he would have kept Felicity as far away from him as well._

_Now? He can see how much the man clearly cares about his family. He wouldn’t be this upset if he didn’t. However, as much as he knows Abraham needs to see his family right now, Oliver can’t let him. Felicity wasn’t ready for him to be a part of their girls lives, and he’s not going to throw that out of the window just because Felicity isn’t here. She’s going to come back home._

_“They are fine,” he says. “You should go home.”_

_“No. No,” Abraham says, shaking his head frantically. “I can’t leave them. You can’t keep them from me.”_

_“Felicity didn’t want you around the kids,” he says carefully. He doesn’t want to make a scene, but the man isn’t going to be let into his daughter’s room, nor will he let him see Donna. “You shouldn’t be here. I’ll give you a call when we know more about Felicity.”_

_“You can’t keep them from me,” Abraham says, distressed. “They are my grandchildren. She’s my wife.”_

_“She’s somebody else’s wife now,” he says carefully, not wanting to set him off. He has no idea how violent Abraham could get. Any man with a mob history has the potential to get fairly violent. “And considering the girls are my children, I think I can keep you away. They’re fine. Perfectly healthy. And when we get Felicity back, you can discuss a different arrangement with her. But for now you will honor her wishes when it comes to our children.”_

_“Oh god… my little Klara. She shouldn’t be involved in this. I don’t understand what happened. The news said they were attacked, but it doesn’t make any sense. Who would want to hurt her? Were they after Donna?”_

_“I don’t know,” Oliver says. “We don’t know anything at the moment. The police are waiting for a ransom call.”_

_The fact that Oliver is able to say any of this as calmly as he is, is a miracle. He feels like he’s about to collapse under the weight of everything that has happened at any moment. Felicity is usually the one that keeps him level headed in a crisis, and it’s honestly been so long since they’ve had to deal with anything this tragic… He’s nearly forgotten what it is like to feel the world slipping away._

_“Or a body…” Abraham says._

_Oliver sucks in a sharp breath. That wasn’t an option he was ready to consider. Felicity was not going to die. She couldn’t._

_“I know how this works. There’s only so many reasons you kidnap a person and so few of those reasons end well for the victim,” Abraham says. “I have friends… I’ll find her. I can find her.”_

_Oliver knows exactly what he’s talking about. As tempting as it would be to have yet another group out there looking for Felicity and hunting down leads, he can’t._

_“No,” Oliver says. “She’s counting on you to be a changed man. She’s trusting you, and going back to your old ways will lose that trust. She’s going to come back. We are going to find her and when she does, I’m not going to be the one to tell her that I condoned her father going back to the lifestyle that pushed him away in the first place.”_

_“I can’t lose her. I just got her back.”_

_“You won’t,” Oliver promises. “Trust me. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”_

_Except, he already had let something happen to her — twice in one day._

****

**2026**

“Why’s he sleepin’ there?” he hears Ella ask, her voice breaking through the haze of sleep. 

“I don’t know, but don’t wake him up, Stupid,” Grace says. Her voice is farther away, but he can still hear it echo through the quiet of the apartment. 

“I have to wake him up,” Ella says. “You’re not suppose to use the kitchen without an adult. Dad says you’re as bad as Mom and you’ll blow us up.” 

“I’m not going to blow us up if I make an egg,” Grace says. Oliver doesn't have to see his daughter to know she's rolling her eyes. 

“You might. Listen to your sister,” Oliver says loud enough for Grace to hear. 

He opens his eyes slowly to see that he’d fallen asleep on the couch last night. He'd planned on staying up in case Felicity needed anything throughout the night, but obviously the events of yesterday wore him out much more than he'd expected because he can’t remember seeing the score for the Rockets game despite knowing he'd turned ESPN on. He'd clearly passed out as soon as he'd sat down. 

He moves to sit up and his back protests his every move. He's getting old. He doesn't know how he used to fight crime every night only to sleep on that dingy cot he'd had at the foundry. He spent one night in the field and on the couch last night and he just knows he'll be paying for it the rest of the week. 

“You have a bed, you know,” Ella says, eyeing him curiously, repeating back a phase he uses with her often whenever she falls asleep on the floor playing with her toys. 

“Yes, and your mom is using it,” he says, standing to stretch out his back. 

“Mom’s here?” Grace asks, walking over to them, her quest to make eggs abandoned. “She stayed the night?” she asks, a hopeful expression on her face that kills him. 

Oh how he wishes he could give her some good news, but the fact remains that Felicity had only come over because the hospital refused to discharge her despite her insistence and only did so once she was able to prove there was somebody to keep an eye on her. At 3am, Oliver had been her only option. She hadn't been thrilled at the idea of sleeping at his apartment, but he'd won that argument with the reminder that somebody had to relieve Thea of babysitting duties since she had an early appointment with her wedding planner this morning. 

“You know Uncle John and Aunt Lyla sleep in the same bed,” Ella says. “You didn't hafta sleep out here. Mom says it's good to share.”

“That’s because Uncle John and Aunt Lyla are married,” Grace says, cooly. “Or don’t you know what divorce means?” 

“Leave your sister alone,” Felicity says, standing in the doorway to his bedroom. Her voice is hoarse, her eyes bloodshot, and her hair's a mess, but she’s looking a million times better than she had last night. 

It's a relief. He'd about lost his mind when she'd passed out on him. He'd rushed her to the hospital and they'd been able to treat her before her airway closed completely. But before that, when she lay in his arms unresponsive and barely breathing, he’d been out of his mind with worry. 

In the blink of an eye, all five members of Team Arrow had been killed. If he hadn’t been there, Felicity would have died with them. He’d been able to protect her from the explosions, but as she struggled to breathe on her own, all he’d been able to think about was how he hadn’t been enough. He was powerless to help her. Try as he might, he’d failed her anyway. 

It wasn’t the first time it’d happened, but he’d made a vow last night that it would be the last. If he'd been on the fence before about going back to work as the Green Arrow, last night had cemented it. The Final Order is going to have hell to pay for last night.

He realizes that she’s still standing in the doorway awkwardly. Her arms are crossed in a defensive position and she looks like a cornered animal the way her eyes are darting around looking for an easy escape. 

“How’d you sleep?” he asks, trying to make small talk with her so that she’ll stop looking like being here is torture for her. 

“Fine,” she says with a self-deprecating shrug that he knows means she hasn’t slept at all. “I should go,” she says, pointing to the door. 

He wishes he knew how to convince her to stay. Years ago, she’d once told him that wherever he was, was home to her. It’s heartbreaking to think that she can’t even spend a single night at his apartment — a night where he’d slept in a completely different room — without feeling uncomfortable. 

Sometimes the distance between them feels insurmountable. 

He’s about to agree with her, knowing that he can’t force her to stay against her will, but thankfully Ella intervenes. 

“No,” Ella says. “You’ll miss the best part of sleepin’ here. Daddy makes the world’s best pancakes!” 

“I know, I’ve had them before,” Felicity says, smiling down at their daughter in a way that makes his heart ache. They never tell you this when you become a parent, but from the day your first child is born, nothing is more precious than seeing your wife interact with your children — divorced or not. 

“But I should get going,” she says, moving to give both girls a hug. “This is your time with your dad.” 

He knows that he shouldn’t. He’ll regret it the second that she turns him down, but he finds himself saying it anyway. “Stay.” 

It comes out as a plea more than anything else. He’s not sure if anything will ever make him feel as desperate as she does. Of all the life and death situations he’s been in — that his loved ones have been in — he’s never felt as hopeless, as unable to do anything, as he does around her. 

“Oliver…” she starts to turn him down just as he expected, but he can’t hear it. Not after everything that happened last night. Not after Team Arrow has died and Felicity should have too... He’d come too close to losing her forever and… 

It’s a meal. That’s all he’s asking her for. Just one more hour together so that he can remind himself that she is okay. He feels entitled to that much, at least. 

“It’s just breakfast,” he says. When their eyes meet, he knows that she can see everything he’s not saying — _I could be asking you for so much more, give me this._

“You don’t want pancakes?” Ella asks, looking at Felicity like she’s crazy. 

“It’s not the pancakes,” Grace says, trying to sound like none of this is affecting her but her watery eyes are giving her away. “Mom doesn’t want to be with us.” 

Felicity tenses at the words, her mouth opening and closing in shock. “That’s not… I wouldn’t… Why would you say that?” 

“Why did you sleep here if you don’t want to be part of this family?” Grace asks, her eyes ablaze in a look that reminds Oliver so much of Felicity when she is upset. 

Grace has been testing her limits over the last few days, ever since that night that she asked if they would still see Oliver if Felicity got remarried. She’s been making nasty comments to everyone and picking on Ella worse than usual. He’s been meaning to sit down and talk to her about it, because obviously she’s still upset over the situation, but there hasn’t been time with everything going on. 

“Harper Grace, that’s not fair,” he says with a warning tone. 

Felicity raises her hand to him, letting him know that she can handle it. “What makes you think that I don’t want to be part of this family?” 

Grace doesn’t respond right away, instead she stares at her feet and traces designs into the floor with her right foot. Felicity doesn’t say anything though, she simply waits her out until she’s ready to talk. 

“Dad didn’t leave us,” Grace says, barely above a whisper. 

Felicity’s eyes immediately meet his in confusion as she responds, “I never said he did.” 

“You always told me you wished our family could be together,” Grace says, her words catching over tears as she tries to remain calm. “I… I thought that meant Dad didn’t… but he _does_. He _does_ , Mom. So it’s you.” 

Oliver finds his own heart shatter at the look in Grace’s eyes. She’s feeling betrayed, like the rug has been pulled out from under her without any warning. He can’t say he doesn’t know the feeling. They’d promised each other for better or for worse, and when worse came, Felicity walked away and never looked back. 

“Sweetheart, we’ve been apart for several years now,” Felicity says, her own voice sounding shaky in a way that has nothing to do with her injuries yesterday. “Where is this coming from?” 

Grace opens her mouth to talk, but instead all that comes out is a sob. She falls into Felicity’s arms, shaking her head, unable to respond to Felicity’s pleas that she talk to her. 

He has no idea what to do. He wants to make Grace feel better. The thought of his daughter in pain hurts worse than a sword to the chest. 

“Hey, hey,” he says. “Your mom and I aren’t together, but we are here. We both love you so much and we are here. No matter what happens, that isn’t going to change. We are both still your parents.” 

Grace continues to cry and Felicity looks up at him, desperate for any kind of answer. He can’t deny her that. 

“She found out that you went on a date,” he says, thankful that it doesn’t come out as accusatory, because it easily could have. Felicity is dating now, and their daughter is in serious pain over it. “I’m pretty sure that’s where this is coming from. She was asking if I’d still get to see them when you get remarried.” 

“I’m not getting remarried,” she says in shock. She pulls Grace back to look her in the eyes and repeats to her, “I’m _not_ getting remarried.” 

“Mom is getting married?” Ella asks, coming over to wrap her arms around Oliver’s legs. She looks up at him, confused. 

“No,” Felicity says, adamantly. “I’m not getting married. I’m not even close to getting married. There’s nobody to even marry. It was _one_ dinner and it’s over.” 

A wave of relief washes over him at her words. He knows it’s wrong. He knows he’s supposed to be mature about this and wish her all the happiness in the world, regardless of who it’s with, but he can’t. He let her get away once because he truly believed her when she said that she couldn’t handle a relationship at the moment. He had not agreed to dating other people. 

“I don’t understand,” Grace says, her body still trembling even as her tears start to subside. “Why don’t you love dad?” 

Felicity’s gasp echoes throughout the room. 

As much as he desperately needs to hear the answer to this, it’s a conversation that he and Felicity need to have privately. 

“Grace, that’s enough questions for today, okay?” He hates shutting her down when she’s just trying to understand, but it’s not the time. He knows that no matter what answer Felicity gives her, it will hurt the same because at the end of the day, they will still be divorced. 

He pulls Ella into his arms and moves over to gently guide Grace towards the kitchen, when he hears it. Felicity’s voice is barely a whisper, but he hears it just the same. 

“I do love your father.” 

He freezes in his spot, and shuts his eyes against the onslaught of emotions that her words cause. He has waited years for her to say it. To hear that she still loves him. It’s everything he ever wanted. However, he hadn’t anticipated how much worse it would make him feel, because if she still loved him, why were they putting themselves through this? 

He waits for her to finish, for her to say that love isn’t enough, or that it doesn’t change anything. He expects to hear some sort of excuse for why they can’t be together, but none comes. He turns around to meet her eyes and the look on her face about kills him. 

She looks so young, so terrified. She looks lost. 

That more than anything else forces him into action.

“Come have breakfast with us,” he says, his voice gentle. He swallows down the pain and bitterness her words have caused, because now isn’t the time. 

“I’ll even make you a cheese omelette,” he says, offering her a warm smile. 

It’s a peace offering. A promise on his part to let it go for now. She nods, giving him a shaky but appreciative smile in return. 

“Thank god, I’m starving!” Ella says, dramatically as she collapses into dead weight in his arms. 

It breaks the tension in the room and Oliver wonders, not for the first time, if Ella doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing at times. It seems like she’s inherited Felicity’s ability to read a room and give people exactly what they need to put their mind at ease. 

****

**2021**

_“Where is Felicity Queen?”_

_“Who’s Felicity Queen?” Frank Wittman, a member of the Final Order, says, causing Oliver to growl._

_Oliver grabs him by the arm and spins him around until his arm is behind his back and pulls up until he hears his shoulder pop and the man screams out in agony._

_“I'm only going to ask you one more time, where is Felicity Queen?”_

_“I don't know! I don't know! Let me go!” Wittman is practically crying by this point._

_“Don't play dumb with me,” Oliver says, spinning him back around and slamming him into the brick wall. Oliver puts him in a chokehold. “I know you are a member of The Final Order.”_

_“That doesn't mean I kidnapped the mayor’s wife!”_

_“I thought you didn't know who Felicity Queen was,” Oliver says with a snarl._

_Wittman’s eyes dart around in a panic as he realizes his mistake._

_“I have a family!” he pleads with him._

_“So does she,” Oliver says through gritted teeth, punching the man square in the face and causing him to fall to the ground unconscious._

_“He knows something,” Oliver says to Digg over the coms. “Make him talk.”_

_“What are you going to do?” Digg asks._

_“Break down every door in this city until I find her.”_

_He’s already literally blown his way into the warehouse basement where Aaron Cohen had been held, but it had been cleared out leaving no evidence behind. Lyla’s given him a list of known Order members and he’s been making his way through them one by one, beating them all to a pulp in order to find Felicity. Prior to Wittman, he’s gone through three other Order members in the last two hours, but he keeps coming up empty handed._

_The first two men he'd tracked down had been nobodys. They were so far down on the totem pole that they didn't even know the real name of their boss. The only name they'd been able to give him was Mindwarp._

_The third man he'd tracked down had openly admitted to being in his home earlier that day to kill Felicity, but claimed he had no knowledge of where she was now. He'd used some rather colorful language to describe his wife and children then went on to tell him that he hoped whoever had Felicity made it hurt for her. The suggestive leer on his face had Oliver putting an arrow in him somewhere that insured he'd never be able to be with a woman that way again. The very implication of what somebody could be doing to Felicity at this exact moment sent him into an even more desperate frenzy._

_He had to find her, and now._

_He takes off down the street to follow the next lead, leaving Wittman behind for Digg to pick up._

_Somebody has to give him a location. She's out there, alone and scared, and she's counting on him to find her. He can't fail her. Not when the consequence is never seeing her again._

_Failure is not an option._

_His phone vibrates with a text from Thea._

__‘Donna is out of surgery and awake. She's working with a sketch artist now. I'll send you a pic when she's done.’ __

_He breathes a sigh of relief that the woman he considers to be his own flesh and blood is alright. It's one less burden on his shoulders when he needs to focus his full attention on finding his wife._

_At least a sketch will give him something to work off of. It'll certainly be a better lead than anything they've got so far._

****

**2026**

When Felicity leaves Oliver’s apartment, it’s with a heavy heart. She isn’t sure how everything has gotten so messed up so quickly. Has it really only been nine days since this all started? Her throat still burns and her lungs can’t handle deep breaths yet, but she’s not concerned about the physical pain. She doesn’t care about what happens to her when the world seems to be crumbling around her. 

Grace is a mess. She found out that Felicity went on a date last week and doesn’t understand.  
She’s feeling abandoned and alone which is something that Felicity had always promised she’d never let her children feel. Not when she knows what it’s like to have a parent leave. She had done her best to soothe her fears, but Felicity thinks she may have only made things worse. 

Oliver had been utterly destroyed by her comment. He hadn’t needed to say anything, the look on his face said it all. In trying to assure Grace that she wasn’t moving on, marrying another man, and forgetting about them, she’d said that she loves Oliver. It’s true. It’s always been true, but that doesn’t mean that she wanted him to know that. The last thing she wants is to cause him any more pain than she already has.

Yet another thing she’s failed at spectacularly. 

Worst of all… the thing that no amount of apologies can fix… Team Arrow is dead. This group of people, most of whom were still teenagers, had been brave enough to put on a mask and defend the city against the worst of the worst. She had promised herself that she would protect them, but now they are gone. They are gone and the city is still in danger. 

She knows what she has to do. 

Despite promising Oliver that she would go home and get some more rest, she immediately gets to work. She heads over to Verdant, where the building has been abandoned for years, but the basement still remains intact and untouched. Oliver had informed her last night that Digg had come and taken the contents of Manuel Sanchez’s safe and hid it at Verdant while they tried to figure out a more secure location. 

She puts in the code to the basement, feeling a sense of deja vu as she makes her way down the stairs. This is where she found herself. This is where she went from a rambling, directionless, IT girl who was hardly living up to her potential; to a badass, full-blown hero. This place reminds her of a simpler time. Back when things were black and white. The difference between right and wrong had been so clear back then. She was young, full of hope, and so painfully naive. 

She’s not that girl anymore. 

For the most part, all of their old equipment is gone. They’d cleaned this space out completely when they moved to their new base. There’s only vague evidence of them having ever been there. Her old computer table and chair sit in the middle of the room, abandoned. When they’d moved, she’d gotten herself a bigger workspace and the table had never made it’s way over. 

Some small pieces of broken bamboo lay on the floor, left over from an unknown sparring session. The concrete walls are scratched up from being hit with arrows, bullets, and god knows what else. There is a random ACE bandage in the corner where the med bay used to be set up. That is all that is left of them after nearly 3 years fighting crime here. 

In the end, no matter how hard you work… No matter how much good you do… In the end it doesn’t really matter. It fades away all too easily. 

Isn’t that the message that was spray painted into the ground near the scene of Team Arrow’s murders? The message that has been on every TV station and on the cover of every newspaper this morning as they announced the deaths of the city’s heroes? 

_Ashes to ashes, it all burns down._

She can hate the assholes that did this to the team more than anything, but she can’t deny their message. She knows better than most how true it is. How quickly everything can crumble around you. 

She moves to the back corner of the room where there is a secret door. It takes her a minute to find it. There isn’t much light down here anymore, so she has to feel around for the crack in the wall with her fingers. However, it doesn’t take her more than a minute to find it and push in, opening the secret closet. Inside, she finds her messenger bag with the contents of Manuel Sanchez’s safe, next to Oliver’s Green Arrow suit, bow, and quiver. 

She isn’t sure what Digg was doing with Oliver’s suit, but considering she passed out and needed to be rushed to the hospital by an Oliver Queen that was still dressed up as a vigilante, she can only imagine.

She picks up his bow, examining it closely. It’s the same bow that she gave him all those years ago when he first came back from Lian Yu and decided to continue on with the mission, despite failing to stop the Undertaking. She knows from conversations they’ve had since, that a large part of the reason he’d agreed to come back was because she’d told him to find another way. She’d convinced him that he could still do it. She’d convinced him that he didn’t have to be a murder, that he could be a hero. 

Sometimes, she wonders if she had any right to tell him that. 

Without stopping to think about the reason for it, she picks up an arrow from his quiver and knocks it in a way that she’s seen her teammates do thousands of times before. She draws the bow and takes aim at her old desk. She releases the string and watches her arrow fly completely past the desk, not even coming close to hitting her mark. 

She frowns. After all the years she spent around Oliver, Roy, and Thea, she’d assumed that shooting an arrow would come naturally. She’s heard Oliver give Roy and Thea enough advice over the years to have a solid understanding of the basics. She hadn’t expected herself to be a master arrowman, but she isn’t trying to hit a moving tennis ball. She is trying to hit a 5 foot wide desk. 

She picks up another arrow and tries again, this time her aim is even more off than the first time. 

“Seriously?” she grumbles. 

Shooting an arrow is essentially math. It’s all about perfecting the distance to velocity to force. She _loves_ math. There’s no reason why she shouldn’t be able to do this. 

She moves to pick up a third arrow, this time holding it in her hand and trying to get a feel for the weight of it while she mentally calculates the correct angle to shoot it at in order to hit her target. After a minute or so, she’s satisfied that she’s figured it out, and tries again. 

“Are you kidding me?” she cries out. 

Perhaps it’s less of a science and more of an art. Oliver always makes it look so easy. They all do. 

Sighing in frustration, she looks around for something to help her, but finds nothing. 

She doesn’t know why this suddenly feels like the most important thing in the world, but it does. How does she think that she can begin to take on the people who killed Team Arrow last night, if she can’t do something as simple as shoot a stupid arrow? 

She’s not a hero. She’s far from it. She _knows_ that. But the real heroes are dead. The team is gone and though the media may be speculating over who’s to blame for it, she knows exactly who’s at fault — she is. 

She closes her eyes tight against another rush of tears. She will not cry again today. They deserve more than her tears — they deserve action. She owes them that much. 

Back when she was a full-time vigilante, she’d been given the name Overwatch for a reason. It was her responsibility to keep everyone safe by anticipating threats, warning for danger, and keeping everyone safe. She hadn’t done that. She’d been so distracted by her own feelings that she’d left Tomo in the car alone. Had she just stayed there, she would have found out about the bombs and diffused them before they could go off. 

She knows she would have. 

She’s done letting other people fight her battles for her. She’s done watching people she cares about get hurt while she’s safe behind a computer screen. This is her responsibility. It is her job to save this city from the monsters who think Star City is theirs for the taking. What’s the saying? It takes a monster to destroy a monster? 

Well lucky for them, she has some experience living in the dark. 

She pulls her phone out of her pocket and Googles “how to shoot an arrow” and spends the next three hours trying to perfect her stance. An hour in, she started consistently hitting the computer desk and began trying to hit a smaller target — a folder she empties and stands up on the desk. No amount of YouTube videos seems to be able to help her hit the folder. 

“Do I even want to know what you’re doing?” Thea asks.

Felicity’s so shocked by her sudden appearance that she accidentally lets go of the string and Thea has to dive out of the way to avoid getting hit. Felicity winces when she realizes that she’d almost hit her. 

“I’ll repeat, do I even want to know?” Thea asks again, moving to take the bow out of Felicity’s hands. 

“Does Oliver have you following me now?” she asks, glaring at her. 

“I honestly had no idea that you would be here,” Thea says, and Felicity can see that she’s telling the truth. 

“Then what _are_ you doing here?” she asks, eying her suspiciously. 

“Picking up this,” Thea says, holding up the bow. “And that,” she says, pointing to Oliver’s suit and quiver. 

“Why?” 

“Liss,” Thea says, using a nickname Felicity hasn’t heard in years. Not since she divorced Oliver and they officially stopped being sisters. 

Thea fixes her with a look, like she’s missing something obvious. “I think even you can agree that it’s time the team got back together.” 

She says it like it’s not a big deal. Like deciding to come out of retirement after nearly five years away is nothing. 

“You don’t have to do this,” she says, trying not to think about Thea getting killed just like Tomo, Miyo, and the others. “You’re about to get married. You and Roy have your whole lives ahead of you.”

“ _I’m_ not doing this,” Thea says. “ _We_ are doing this. Oliver, Roy, Digg? We are all in. After what happened last night… Well, somebody is going to have to stop these guys right? And based on the fact that you’re here trying to learn to shoot an arrow, I know that you agree. So the only question is, are you going to continue going at this alone, or are you going to come back to the team where you belong?” 

Felicity bites her lip, not knowing how to respond. 

On one hand, of course that’s what she wants. She knows that their best chance of stopping whatever is to come is by working together. She wants nothing more than to have the team back together and pretend that nothing has changed. It would be easy to do that. 

However, for the same reasons she can’t be with Oliver, she doesn’t think she can be with the team either. She can’t be trusted, not with something as important as this. What happens when she’s faced with the choice of saving one of their lives or saving the world? A hero choses the world every time. Heroes aren’t selfish, they sacrifice for the greater good. 

Oliver did it when Laurel died. He’d been faced with the choice between saving her or stopping an attack on an elementary school. For him, the choice was clear. Laurel would never forgive him if he let countless children die in her stead. She’d told him as much over the coms right before Darhk killed her. 

John had watched Andy get tortured and eventually killed because he refused to give up the location of a nuclear bomb that could destroy Star City. After that, John himself had been tortured to the point that he had to be put into a medically induced coma for a month upon his rescue. He’d never said a word to his capturers. 

Even Thea and Roy have proven time and time again how much they were willing to sacrifice for the greater good… Felicity? She’d been willing to let an entire city burn to save Oliver’s life. She practically lit the fire herself. She’s not the kind of person they need on their team. Not anymore. 

“You know, this should be obvious to you, but based on the fact that both of you are denser than a cement wall about each other, I’m going to say it anyway,” Thea says. “Oliver _can_ do this without you, but he shouldn’t have to. I know that he doesn’t think he can, that much is obvious by the way he quit when you did. But he’d figure it out. I just don’t understand why you’d let him. He’s safer with you watching his back. We are all better off with you on the team.” 

“You’re not,” Felicity argues. “Maybe you once were, but you’re not anymore. You have no idea…” 

“You’re right,” Thea says, throwing her hands up in surrender. “I have no idea what happened to you and Oliver when you were kidnapped. I’ve heard bits and pieces, enough to have a general idea. But I don’t really know the whole story. He doesn’t talk about it and neither do you. But what I do know is that no matter what happened, you are _not_ a monster.” 

“I am,” she argues. 

“If that’s true, then so are the rest of us,” Thea says.

“You’re not..” Felicity starts to say, but Thea cuts her off. 

“We’ve all done terrible things in our day. Are you telling me that we aren’t redeemable? I know you don’t believe that. You spent too long trying to harness my brother’s light when even I thought he might be lost to the shadows forever. Why is he worth all that effort, but you’re not?” 

Felicity shrugs. She doesn’t know how to explain that what she’s done is different. There is a line between horrible actions that are justified for the greater good, and just plain horrible actions. Her actions were so far over the line there’s not even a question as to what side they fell on. 

“Square your shoulders,” Thea says, pulling her shoulders back. “You’ll want to make sure your feet are at a 90 degree angle from the target, it’ll give you the best aim.” 

“What are you doing?” she asks, confused as Thea puts the bow back in her hand. 

“I don’t get it,” Thea says. “But if you want to continue on this insane one woman against the world thing you’ve got planned out of some need for redemption, then I’m not gonna stop you. But I’m not going to let you get killed either. So let’s learn how to shoot.” 

“You’re going to help me?” Felicity asks, doubting the sincerity of the offer. “Why?” 

Thea doesn’t answer right away. She nods her on, watching as Felicity takes aim and shoots. She misses the folder again, but this time, she’s come closer than she has before. Thea manhandles her into what she deems an optimal shooting position and hands her another arrow to try. When Felicity lets go of the string this time, the arrow hits the folder dead center. She gasps in surprise. 

“I once thought that it would be better to die than to live with the guilt of killing Sara,” Thea tells her. 

Felicity is about to say something, to remind her that Sara’s death was not her fault. That Sara is alive and well now, so she can let it go, but Thea shakes her head. 

“I was wrong,” Thea says. “And soon enough, you’ll realize the same. When you do, we’re setting up at the lair under Ollie’s old campaign office.” 

Thea grabs Oliver’s suit, but leaves the bow and quiver for her and heads back towards the stairs. 

Felicity tries to think of anything to say, but she can’t. She doesn’t have an answer. She doesn’t know if she can go back to the team. It’d been one thing to join up with the New Team Arrow. They were so young and inexperienced. There was no question about whether or not they needed Felicity’s help. But Oliver, Digg, Thea, and Roy can take care of themselves. They don’t need her… And they are too important to her to lose. She can’t have their death on her hands. 

But what would be worse? Having them die on her watch or having them die knowing she’d done nothing to stop it? 

“Thea,” Felicity calls out after her. 

Thea stops on the top step, her hand on the door. 

“2375 McGarity Road. Door code is 16783,” she tells her. 

“What’s that?” 

“The address to the Arrow Cave,” Felicity informs her. “It’s already set up with all the computer equipment and supplies you’ll need.” 

“Does that mean you’re in?” Thea asks, a hopeful smile on her face. 

Felicity hesitates for a moment, wondering if she’s really making the right choice, but she knows that she’ll never forgive herself if something happens to her family and she isn’t there to stop it. 

“I have to talk to Oliver first,” she says. 

“Of course,” Thea says. “You know… shooting an arrow is great and all, but anybody can learn how to do that, it doesn’t make you special. It doesn’t make you a hero. You’re a hero because of what you can do with a computer. And you’re special because you have a good heart, despite what you might think. You don’t need to change for us. You don’t have anything to prove.” 

“I need to prove it to myself,” she says, quietly. She doesn’t think that Thea hears her, but the sad smile she gets in return tells her that she did. 

****

**2021**

_Felicity peels her eyes open and immediately regrets it as the bright lights cause the pounding in her head to increase. She shuts her eyes with a moan._

_“Oliver?” she whines, hoping that he’ll hear how desperate she sounds and get up to get her tylenol for her migraine._

_When he doesn’t respond, she groans and rolls over. Her back protests her every move, and as the nerves in her spine send shooting pain through her legs, the events of yesterday come slamming back into her memory._

_She opens her eyes, this time ignoring the pain in her head to take stock of every detail she can._

_Her arms and legs are zip tied together. All things considered, that’s the best she can hope for. Handcuffs can be picked open, but it takes time. Duck tape is a bitch, but she could do it. Zip ties? They can be broken with just the right amount of force. Digg showed her that trick practically her first day on the team._

_So her arms and legs are bound, but that’s not a problem. There are no windows in the room, so she can’t tell where she is or what time of day it is. She’s going to assume it’s at least morning by now, but for all she knows it could be days later. Apart from that? The room looks normal. She’s laying on queen size bed with a soft comforter under her. The walls are painted a nice cream color and there are a few paintings on the wall._

_This isn’t a prison, it’s a home… It’s hardly what she expected when she’d been looking for secret hide outs for The Final Order. This room is like something straight out of Ivy Town._

_For all she knows, on the other side of these walls, she’ll find herself in the middle of good old suburban America. That’s good. She doesn’t want to be held captive in the warehouse district or anywhere equally abandoned. It meant much more running for her life before she can reach help._

_Help… She needs to find a way to call for help. She’s positive that Oliver is already out there looking for her, along with the rest of the team. She knows that he’ll find her before anything bad can happen to her. Of that, she has all the faith in the world. However, she won’t complain about moving the whole ‘Rescuing Felicity’ process along with a phone call._

_She looks around the room again for anything that has access to an outside line. She doesn’t see a phone or a computer. There’s no TV to reverse engineer, nor are there any outlets in the wall for internet._

_She won’t be contacting Oliver from inside the room, so she’s going to need to get out first. She rolls over in the bed, ignoring the way her body protests her every move. The Final Order had certainly done a number on her when they attacked her at the loft, and lord knows what they’ve done to her while she’s been out. She can’t imagine they were gentle in moving her body to wherever she is now._

_Weapons. She needs a way to defend herself, first and foremost. She’ll be no good against her kidnappers if she doesn’t have one._

_On top of a dresser is a glass vase with fake flowers. She manages to get herself to her feet and hops to the dresser since her ankles are bound too tight to even shuffle. Once she reaches the dresser, she reaches up and slides the vase off until it hits the floor and shatters._

_Unfortunately, it makes a loud noise when it does._

_Why hadn’t she thought of that?_

_She can hear the sound of the door unlocking and she quickly grabs one of the pieces of glass and throws herself into bed, as a big, burly man makes his way into the room._

_“Mrs. Queen is everything alright?” he asks._

_She’s thrown off by the statement, as well as the concern in his eyes._

_The man sees the glass on the floor and looks at her with a sad smile. He moves over to the bed and she tries to take advantage of the moment and stab him with the shard of glass, but he grabs her wrist and wrestles it out of her hands easily._

_“I’m sorry, Mrs. Queen,” the man says. “We were told to make you as comfortable as possible, but that we aren’t to let you leave.”_

_Why on Earth would The Final Order care if she is comfortable? And if they wanted her to be comfortable, why did they beat her so badly before they’d taken her?_

_“Who told you that?” she asks, desperate for answers._

_“Oh,” the man laughs. “I think the answer to that question will surprise you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always deeply appreciated!


	7. Rise Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oliver is desperate to find Felicity after she's been kidnapped, while Felicity struggles to stay calm in the presence of her captor. 
> 
> Meanwhile in 2026, Felicity talks to Oliver about joining Team Arrow again...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks as always to my girl @emisfritish for all the hard work you do for me getting this story ready to read.

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

_**2021** _

_If there is one thing Oliver has learned in the 7 years he's known Donna, it's that she's a lot tougher than she looks. She's actually, quite terrifying when she wants to be._

_And the way she's looking at Oliver right now, has him questioning if he should have brought his bow and arrow with him to defend himself._

_“Where’s my daughter?” she asks, an accusatory look in her eye._

_He can't fault her for that. He should have been there to protect them and he wasn't. He should have already_ found _Felicity and he hadn't._

_“We’re going to get her back,” he promises._

_She laughs but he can tell she doesn't find any of this humorous._

_“A real Bratva captain would command so much fear and respect, that we wouldn't have been attacked in the first place.”_

_He freezes at her words. There’s no way. She can’t know…_

_Then again, hadn’t Felicity told him that Donna grew up in Russia?_

_“How… I don’t… You’ve never said anything,” he says, stumbling over his words in his shock._

_“I’m not naive,” she says. “I’ve lived in this world long enough to have seen good men do unspeakable things and bad men become heroes. So the question is, Oliver, which one are you?”_

_Gone is the sweet, loving tone she always uses with him. He’s only heard her use this tone of voice when talking about her ex-husband. He's taken back. Felicity’s father is a criminal. A heartless man that left his wife and child. No matter the excuses has made to Felicity or how much he claims to have changed, Abraham’s actions were inexcusable. To have Donna speaking to him like he's no better…_

_Oliver isn’t sure how to respond. He likes to think that he is a good man. He is a loving husband, a giving father, a generous mayor, and a selfless hero. He sacrifices so much for the good of the city without so much as a thank you. But he hasn’t always been the man he is today. He’s killed before and not only in self-defense._

_He didn’t become a Bratva captain simply for getting Anatoly off of that cargo ship. He earned his rank doing exactly the kinds of things you picture a member of the Bratva doing…_

_He can see how she may think that he’s no better than Abraham. But he is. God damnit, Oliver isn’t Abraham and Donna can trust him with Felicity._

_“You can trust me,” he says, because isn’t that is where this is going. She’s trying to figure out where he stands and if he is somebody she can trust around her family._

_“I thought so before, when I first realized you were Bratva. Anatoly promised me as much when I asked him if I could trust you around my daughter and grandchildren. But it wouldn't be the first time I’ve been wrong about a man.”_

_“Donna...” he pleads with her._

_He has enough on his plate, the last thing he needs is for her to be angry with him. Already, it feels as if the ground is crumbling at his feet. He just needs her to give him the description of the police officer that attacked them so he can find Felicity. However, he’s losing his focus. Knowing that Donna blames him for Felicity’s disappearance… it feels like the air is being sucked out of the room._

_“Don’t Donna me,” she says. “Felicity told me that you aren’t Bratva anymore. I believe that she believes that. But you and I both know there’s only one way to leave the Brotherhood, don’t we?”_

_“Anatoly and I have an understanding,” he says. “I’m not an active member anymore.”_

_“Is that so? Is that where you go late at night? When you come back with new scars and blood on your clothes, thinking that nobody will notice?” she asks._

_He doesn’t know how to convince her that he isn’t this horrible gang member that she believes him to be without giving away what it really is that he gets up to at night. Not for the first time this evening, he wishes Felicity were here. Felicity would know what to say to Donna._

_Then again, if Felicity were here, Donna wouldn’t have a reason to be doubting him._

_“It’s not what you think,” he says, though he’s not sure what he’s going to tell her that it is._

_“It never is, is it?” Donna says, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to ask you one more time nicely, then I’m going to call the police and tell them their mayor isn’t who he says he is. Where is my daughter?”_

_He decides that it’s now or never. Donna Lance deserves to know the truth. That her kidnapping has little to do with his involvement in the Bratva. That is has to do with her religion… With the status of their bank account... With her notoriety as the CEO of Palmer Tech… With her marriage to the mayor of Star City…_

_Hell, they still haven’t ruled out the possibility of the kidnapping having to do with her involvement in Team Arrow._

_Either way, Donna Lance deserves to know the truth. That her daughter has been taken by The Final Order, and that they know this because they have been working together as vigilantes for the last 9 years._

_The truth won’t make it any less his fault. He is under no illusion that he’s blameless in this. However, the truth might make things more clear for Donna._

_And maybe… just maybe… she’ll trust him again._

_Because the way she’s looking at him like he’s the enemy? Like he isn’t in agony over Felicity’s disappearance? That he’d carelessly put her into harm's way? It hurts._

_“She was taken by a group called The Final Order,” he says. “I don’t know where they are holding her, but I will find her.”_

_Donna nods, but he can see that her hands are shaking. It’s the first sign that her armour is starting to break._

_“And what does this Final Order want with Felicity?” she asks. “I imagine if it was ransom, they would have taken Grace and Ella, instead. Children go for a lot more money.”_

_“The Final Order is the terrorist group responsible for all the murders you’ve been seeing on TV recently,” he says. “Yesterday, while Felicity and I were at work, she discovered that all the victims have been Jewish. I believe that is the main reason why she’s been taken.”_

_“Felicity mentioned something about that, and those men were using a lot of slurs when they attacked, but I didn’t think… How did you discover this, again?” Donna asks._

_He takes a deep breath before answering. “Because we were looking into the murders.”_

_“Isn’t that a job for the police?”_

_“Typically…” he says, trailing off._

_She glares at him in the same way that Felicity does whenever he’s being overly vague and not forthcoming with the details. The reminder sends a pang through him, reminding him just how much Felicity’s presence is missed._

_He looks towards the door, double checking that it’s still shut tight and that nobody is standing on the other side listening in. When he doesn’t see any feet through the crack at the bottom of the door, he turns back to Donna._

_“Felicity has been helping me track down criminals in this city and take them down,” he says quietly, leaning in close so that she can hear but he doesn’t have to worry about anybody accidently hearing him._

_Donna’s eyes cloud over in confusion as the words sink in. Her forehead wrinkles as she tries to process what it is he is telling her. Then slowly, understanding starts to come. She shakes her head._

_“No,” she says. “That’s impossible. No.”_

_Oliver doesn’t say anything, giving her time to work through the news he’s just delivered so that she can arrive at her own conclusion. Years of dealing with the Smoak women has taught him that this is the best route to chose._

_“So all those times… Of course,” she says. “Getting shot by H.I.V.E.? The friend that she called when we were kidnapped by Cooper? The way you both constantly look over your shoulders like you’re wondering where the next hit will come from? Anabella_ Jade _Queen? Naming Grace after that Harper kid who was arrested for being The Arrow? You’re him… You’re The Green Arrow. Which makes Felicity… Don’t tell me that she’s the girl in red.”_

_Oliver shakes his head._

_“That would be Thea — Speedy, we call her,” he says. “Felicity runs the communication lines. She hacks into security systems for us and gets us the information we need to take down criminals. She does a lot of the legwork of finding threats to the city before attacks happen.”_

_“And this work that you all do... You’re sure that’s not why she was taken?” Donna asks, her voice trembling as tears fall from her eyes. “Nobody found out about what it is you do and decided to take her to get even?”_

_“I don’t believe so,” Oliver says. “I believe that Felicity was taken for one of two reasons. They are either going to kill her because she’s Jewish or they are going to use her because she’s a genius. Felicity’s position at Palmer Tech makes her a very tempting target for a group that’s trying to make a statement. The fact that she’s wife to the mayor, doesn’t make her any less attractive of a target.”_

_“Oh God,” Donna says, her resolve crumbling as she starts to cry. “What if they kill her?”_

_Oliver moves to sit on the edge of the bed and pull her into his arms — carefully, so that she doesn’t pull on her stitches._

_“She's still alive,” he says. She has to be. “I’m going to find the people that did this, and I’m going to make them suffer.”_

_Donna pulls back from him and wipes her eyes, a look of pure determination set on her face._

_“Then what are you still doing here?” she asks._

****

**2026**

Felicity stands outside of Oliver’s door, fingers running nervously over the grip of his bow, debating if she’s really doing the right thing by being here. Inside, she can hear Ella’s rambunctious laughter and Oliver’s playful growls, accompanied by the sound of running. She can just picture the two of them — Oliver running after Ella while she ducks behind furniture and hides, only to pop out and allow herself to get caught every other minute. She can’t help but smile as Grace can be heard screaming, “Dad, no! I’m not playing — stop!” right before she starts giggling uncontrollably. 

Oliver has always been so great with the girls. 

She closes her eyes and lets herself imagine that things are different for them — just for a moment. She allows herself to pretend that she lives here. That she’s just coming home from a long day at work and she’s going to walk inside to find the living room in disarray. Oliver will look sheepish for the mess and immediately apologize for not having dinner ready. She’ll kiss him hello, and give him a hard time about being hungry, but won’t really mean it...

Then she opens her eyes, and she’s reminded that her life isn’t that simple. 

She hates that this happened to them. That her happily ever after was ripped away from her so brutally that getting it back seems impossible. But she doesn’t have to tackle all of her issues in one day. First things first… she needs to talk to Oliver about her decision to come back to the team. Everything else can be a problem for another day. 

Baby steps. That’s how she’s going to keep her head above water and stop herself from panicking.

Step one: talk to Oliver. 

Tentatively, she raises her hand to the door and knocks. 

It doesn’t take long for Oliver to answer the door. She sees the backs of Ella and Grace’s heads as they run down the hall yelling, “Hide!” 

“Felicity,” he says surprised. “I didn’t think you would be back today. I thought you were picking the girls up tomorrow morning.” 

“I am,” she says, holding his bow out for him to take. “I came to give that back to you.” 

He looks confused, but takes it out of her hands and opens the door wider for her to step inside. She follows him into the living room, crossing her arms nervously. The entire way over here, she’d practiced what she wanted to say to him, but now that she’s here, none of the things she was planning to say seem appropriate. 

“Thea said that you were using it to practice,” he says. It’s not a question in and of itself, but she can hear the question in his tone. 

She opens her mouth to answer, but is cut off by the sound of yelling down the hall. 

“No! He’ll find us in there!” Ella cries out, her voice loud as always, even if it’s muffled by the closed bedroom door. 

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?” she asks, eyes on the hallway. She doesn’t want her daughters to overhear their conversation. 

He looks at her, hesitant, and god does she deserve that. She’d broken his heart earlier today with her confession that she still loved him. It’s only fair that he’s worried about what else she could possibly say to him today to ruin him. 

It’s funny. Her friends warned her when she first started dating Oliver that he would break her heart one day. They never warned her how easily she could break his. 

“Yeah,” he says after a moment. “Let me just go tell Thea that I’m stepping out so she can keep an eye on the girls.” 

Felicity nods and watches as he walks down the hallway and disappears. 

She takes a deep breath and tries to calm her nerves. This is hardly the first time that she’s talked to Oliver. They’ve known each other for years. She knows that she can trust him with whatever she has to say. Even if he doesn’t like what she has to say, he’ll yell at her for a little bit, but he’ll get over it in a few days. 

There’s no reason to be so anxious, she reminds herself. She can do this. 

He comes back into the living room and grabs his coat, opening the front door without a word. 

“Where are we going?” she asks. 

“Just up to the roof,” he says. “I don’t trust Grace not to eavesdrop.” 

She nods in agreement and follows him out the door. They silently make their way up the single flight of stairs to the roof of the building. When they reach the roof, Oliver grabs some patio chairs that are stacked against the wall and pulls two of them over to the ledge, setting them down so they can overlook the city before them. He takes a seat and gestures for her to do the same. 

“So, you wanted to try your hand at being The Green Arrow?” he asks her once she’s taken a seat. There’s no judgement in his voice, only curiosity. 

“I don’t want to be weak anymore,” she says. 

Oliver gives her a stern look. The look that says, ‘you couldn’t be more wrong.’ 

“You’ve never been weak,” he says. 

She picks at her chipping nail polish and chooses not to respond to that. He’ll never be convinced otherwise. That battle would be lost before it even started. 

Oliver reaches out to still her anxious hands. “You don’t have to be nervous, it’s just me. Whatever you have to say, I’ll listen.” 

“No yelling?” she asks. 

“I told you, I was surprised and scared, before. I promise to listen to you this time, if you’ll promise to listen to me.” 

She nods her head in agreement. 

“This didn’t use to be so hard,” Oliver says. “We used to be able to tell each other anything without needing a disclaimer.” 

Her first instinct is to say that they used to be married, of course they used to tell each other everything. However, that comment won’t get them anywhere, and she’d promised herself not to hide her pain away with catty remarks. She isn’t going to shy away from finally having a real conversation with him. He deserves that much, at least. 

She bites her tongue and gives him a sad smile instead. 

“You guys all make it look so easy,” she says. “I thought that maybe I could just do this by myself and nobody else would have to get hurt, but that was silly.” 

“Yeah,” he says. 

She glares at him, offended. Is the idea of her trying to shoot an arrow really that ridiculous? If Thea could train to be a master arrowman, why couldn’t she? 

“I just mean, you don’t have to do this alone. You never have,” he clarifies. 

She nods. She doesn’t understand why she’s always on the defensive with him. It’s like she’s constantly waiting for him to attack, but he never does. Since the divorce, he’s rarely ever yelled at her, and those few times he has, he only did so because he was scared. It’s like she keeps expecting him to lash out at her for hurting him so badly. She certainly deserves it, but he doesn’t. 

He’s given her space and time to heal and she deserves none of it. All she ever does is hurt him. 

If there was a way for her to make it up to him, she would. In a heartbeat. Except, the only thing that he’s ever wanted from her, is the one thing that she can’t give him. 

He stares at her with an intensity that causes her to burn with want and she has to tear her eyes away to stop herself from crawling into his lap and begging for forgiveness. 

She can’t ask that of him. They can’t be together… not now. Maybe not ever. She can’t go back to him while she’s still so lost in the dark. It’s not fair to him. He’s fought so hard to stay in the light and she’ll be damned if she’s the thing that brings him down. 

It’s too easy for them to get lost in each other. It’s too easy to let their love consume her until there is nothing left. 

“That’s why I’m here,” she says, forcing her thoughts back to the matter at hand. “Thea says that the team is getting back together.” 

“We don’t really have a choice after what happened yesterday,” he says. 

She nods in understanding. He may not have known the New Team Arrow, but he still feels responsible for the events of what happened, just like she does. Oliver has always taken the world’s problems on his shoulders. Of course he would feel compelled to join the fight again. He should. He’s the type of hero that Star City needs. 

He’s the hero that she wishes she still was. 

And maybe… just maybe… she can be that hero again. She just has to find a way to live in the light. She has to step out of the shadows that consume her. The first steps, she’s certain, involve coming back to the team; Trusting her friends and family to show her a brighter path. 

“I realized sometime around the fourth hour mark that you’re a much better shot than I’ll ever be,” she says. 

“It took you four hours to realize that?” he asks in a teasing tone. 

“Watch it,” she says with a playful glare. “Anyway, I realized that my place isn’t on the front lines, it’s behind a keyboard.” 

“Does that mean you’re considering coming back to the team?” Oliver asks, she can hear the hope in his voice. 

This is the part that she’s been practicing the entire way over. The part where she tells him that she’s ready to come back. Where she explains that she won’t be able to live with herself if something happens to them when she’s not there to help them. This is the moment that she tells him she doesn’t want to live in the shadows anymore, but that she doesn’t know how to pull herself out of the darkness. 

This is the part where she says _yes._

“I don’t know if I can,” is what she says instead. The fear inside of her is almost debilitating. No matter how desperately she wants to agree, the words don’t make it out. 

How can they when she still doesn’t trust herself around him? How can she agree to help herself when the potential for utter destruction is palpable. Maybe she doesn’t deserve relief. 

No, there is no maybe. She doesn’t deserve relief. What made her even think that coming here was an option? 

She’s about to tell Oliver what a giant mistake this all was, when he starts talking. 

“When the Undertaking happened… When the earthquake machine went off and everything went to hell, I didn’t think that I could ever come back,” he says. “I was so adamant that I had no business being a hero that I willingly went back to Lian Yu to punish myself for not doing better. Do you remember why I came back?” 

She doesn’t answer, she knows how the story ends. She was there. She remembers clearly how Digg and her had had to practically drag Oliver back to civilization. 

At the time, she didn’t understand how Oliver could be so willing to give up when he’d barely even started on his journey to becoming a real hero. Now, she understands the feeling too well. 

“You and Digg brought me back. At first, I hated you for it,” he says. “But in time, I realized it was the best thing that could have happened to me. You showed me that I wasn’t a collection of all of my past mistakes. That I could be better. You fought for me to stay in the light until I learned how to do so for myself.” 

Rationally, she knows that she used to be that girl. She used to be full of optimism, empowering speeches, and morality. She used to be strong. Now, though, even those memories are tainted by her actions. She feels like she was a fraud. Was she ever a good person or was this darkness always simmering just under the surface waiting to come out? 

“You would have found your way without me,” she says, trying to minimize her role in his life. Trying to make him see that she isn’t the person that he’s made her out to be. “It just might have taken you longer.” 

“I made a mistake when I let you walk away,” he says. “I thought… Given some time... That you would heal and find your light again. I mean, you’re _Felicity_. You don’t need anybody to light your way; you’ve always been able to do that yourself. But I was wrong. I think I was supposed to keep you from drowning and I failed.” 

She can see the tears threatening to fall from his eyes and it hits her like a punch in the gut. For years he’s been carrying around this guilt over her that is completely unwarranted. It wasn’t his job to keep her head above water. Not then, not now. She’d done something awful and deserved to drown over it. If she’d wanted him to make her feel better about the choices she’d made, she would have stayed with him. 

“What happened to me — What happened to _us_ — It wasn’t your fault,” she says. That she is adamant about. 

“You said yourself that the only reason you did what you did was to save my life,” he says, his voice breaking as he does. 

It’s enough to send her over the edge. 

“And that was _my_ choice,” she says, wiping away tears that have started to fall. Her fingers come back black, so she can only imagine how awful she looks right now with mascara running down her face. 

Good. She doesn’t want to be attractive to him. The last thing that he needs is another reason to love her. He needs to move on and find somebody better. 

“You can’t carry my burdens on your shoulders, as broad as they may be,” she tells him. 

“That was the vow,” he says, she can see that he’s growing agitated, but he’s holding to his promise. He’s not yelling. “For better or for worse. Those were the vows we said to one another and I meant them. I thought you did, too…” 

He’s been waiting to say that since the day she filed for divorce. Of that, she’s sure. He’s been holding it in, afraid to say too much in fear of breaking her. But he _wants_ … Oliver wants so much from her and she just doesn’t know how to give it to him without pulling him down with her. 

But.. She wants it, too. She hurts, too. She thinks back to the vows that they promised to each other, and she aches. Walking away from him was not a choice she made lightly. It was a choice made out of necessity — for both of their sakes. 

“You have to know that leaving wasn’t an easy decision for me to make,” she tries to tell him, but she knows her words must sound so empty in the face of her actions. 

“I’ve been comforting Grace all day. I’ve been trying to pretend, for her sake, that I get it. But I don’t,” he says through gritted teeth. 

The pain in his words is obvious, and the mention of Grace brings on a whole new wave of guilt for Felicity. Hurting Oliver had been unavoidable in the divorce. However, she never intended for her children to suffer from it. She worked overtime to make sure that they still felt loved every second of the day. Somehow, she’d failed in that, too. 

She’s always failing these days. 

“You have always been the one saying it’s better to get through the hard times together than apart. When I pushed everyone away, you told me I deserved better. You fought for me, despite my past. Why when it’s _your_ past that’s called into question is it any different? If you can love me and see the good in me after everything I’ve done, why can’t you believe in my love for you?” Oliver asks and there is a pleading to his words. He needs her to not only hear them, he needs her to believe them.

“I don’t doubt your love for me, you’ve always made that clear,” she says. 

Never once, even when she was at her worst, has she thought that Oliver didn’t love her. It’s a matter of if Oliver _should_ love her. If she’s worthy of such a thing… 

She’s not. 

“Well you know that _I_ love _you_ , and you told Grace that _you_ still love _me_ ,” he says. “So what is it?” 

This is the line… the one that she’s always avoided crossing with him. Anytime they’ve ever come close to it, she’s changed the topic as quickly as possible. She hasn’t wanted to talk about her reasons for not coming back. She knew that explaining herself just made it easier for Oliver to try to reason with her and she wasn’t willing to let that happen. She’s never trusted herself to stay strong when it comes to him. 

However, she can see in his eyes how much he needs to understand. He’s waited 5 years for an explanation and even she’s not so evil that she’ll deny him that. 

“I doubt our relationship’s ability to succeed without it bringing us both down,” she says, needing him to understand. “We can’t be together when one of us is beyond broken. I’m too broken…” 

Her voice cracks, and she has to stop herself before she starts to cry. 

“You’re the strongest person I know,” Oliver says to her. It’s the same words he’s been saying to her for years, so they shouldn’t comes as a surprise. Still... 

The admission causes her to shatter. She can’t contain her tears any longer when she’s made herself completely vulnerable to him. By opening up to him, she’s ripped off a scab that was barely healed and now it’s like it’s happening all over again. She’s back in that room with Oliver, watching him get tortured while men scream at her. Her hands are shaking as they move over a keyboard, programming as fast as she can while Oliver’s screams ring in her ears. She’s crying out, begging them to stop. They don’t care. They will stop torturing him when she’s finished doing what they want. 

“Hey, _hey_ ,” Oliver says, getting up to pull her into his arms, but she pushes him away. 

She can’t have him close to her right now. Not while she’s still stuck in her memories of him breathing uneven in her ear as she breaks him out of his chains and his weight falls into her. 

“Felicity,” he says to her. It’s unclear if Memory-Oliver says it or if Present-Oliver does. 

She’s panicking. That much is obvious. She drops her head in between her knees and begins counting her breaths. One-two-three in. One-two-three out.

“ _They will kill him if you don't do this, Klara.”_

_“Don’t, Felicity. Not for me.”_

She puts her hands over her ears, praying that it all stops soon. She can’t handle it. It doesn’t take long for her memories to morph into one of Tomo, telling her that she’s to blame for his death. 

“Felicity,” Oliver moves out of his chair to kneel in front of her. He gently pulls at her until she’s looking at him and can hold her face between his palms. “Breathe, okay? Slowly in and out. Breathe with me. Okay? You’re going to be okay.” 

She struggles to get air. Her throat is still raw from all the smoke yesterday and a panic attack isn't helping matters. But her eyes meet Oliver’s and it grounds her in reality. She focuses on the sound of his breathing — alive and well. He's not chained up and tortured. He's here. He's breathing. 

They are both safe.

Eventually, her breathing evens out and the voices stop tormenting her. 

“Sooner or later, you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened. If not for me, then for yourself,” Oliver tells her as he runs his hands lovingly through her hair. 

She can't help but lean into his touch. Her body is exhausted after the panic attack she’s just had. Her muscles feel like Jell-O. All of her walls have been torn down and she doesn’t have the energy to fight him anymore. Perhaps tomorrow… but not now. 

“I don’t know how,” she whispers. “I used to know who I was, but I don’t anymore.” 

He wipes at her eyes and kisses her on the head, causing her to hum in satisfaction. 

_He's still here._

Why has she been pushing him away? Why can't she just get her life together so that she can go back to him?

“I know who you are… I know who you used to be, and I can help you find her again,” he says. 

She shakes her head. He can’t… that girl is lost. That girl needs to stay lost. The girl she was before… 

“That girl nearly burned the world down to save her husband,” she says, choking on a hysterical laugh as she can feel the sobs building up again. 

“Hey, hey…” he says, pulling on her face gently until she's looking at him again. “Nearly, but _didn’t_. You _could have_ , but you _didn’t_. You found another way.” 

“You don't believe that,” she says. “I'm an awful person.” 

“If you were an awful person, do you honestly believe I'd still love you this much?”

“I don’t know,” she says, leaning forward until her forehead is resting against his. 

It’s the closest they have been in years. It’s closer than they really should be, but she can’t deny herself the comfort that he is bringing her right now. It’s selfish. She knows it’s selfish, but she’ll deal with that tomorrow, when everything isn’t so blurry around the edges. 

His touch is just as comforting as it used to be. Oliver has a way of making the world disappear around her. His hand rubs at the back of her neck, and she can feel the tension start to leave her body. 

“I never wanted to hurt you,” she whispers. This moment between them feels too fragile, like it could break with a simple touch. She wants it to last as long as it can. 

“You leaving was always going to hurt,” he whispers back, clearly afraid of losing the moment as well. “It _will always_ hurt.” 

“I’m sorry,” she says. 

“Stop being sorry, and fix it.” 

Maybe it’s the tears in his eyes. Maybe it’s the way his eyes keep drifting down to her lips as he licks his own. Maybe it’s the way his breath is tickling her face. Maybe it’s the way that he’s touching her like she’s something to be cherished. Whatever the reason, she finds herself leaning in until their lips meet in a tentative kiss. 

And just like that it’s like a switch has been turned on and the haze left over from the panic attack disappears. She is about to pull away, conscious that this can’t happen… That this _shouldn’t_ happen… but Oliver’s hand at the back of her neck tenses and pulls her closer to him. 

Her lips yield to his and she lets him take control. She should be fighting this, but she won’t. Not while the damage is already done and her entire body is aching with need. And god, she’s been lying to herself every single time she’s said she doesn’t need this man. 

Time stops and the world slips away and all that is left is Oliver. 

His tongue traces over her lips and she opens them for him. He moans and a shiver goes up her spine. She can feel the desperation in the way his hands grip at her, like he knows any second she will slip away from him. He needs her just as much as she needs him. 

She drapes her arms around his shoulders and moves to the edge of the chair so that his body slots right between her knees. 

“Please,” he murmurs and she pulls away to look at him. His eyes are closed, as if he’s scared of what he’ll find when he opens them. 

“Oliver…” 

His eyes open, and in this moment, she realizes that she has the power to either restore or destroy with her next words. 

She can give him hope for a future together or she can end this once and for all. 

She knows what she _wants_ to do, but it’s not the right time. Not yet. She can’t come back to him while she’s still in pieces. She has to figure out her own life first, before she can attempt to make the two of them fit together again. 

“I don’t want to keep pushing you away...” she confesses. She bites her lower lip, not knowing how to continue. 

But she should know by now that she doesn’t have to. Oliver has always been able to read her as well as she can read him. 

“But you aren’t ready,” he finishes her sentence for her. 

“I want to be…” she says, to which he nods. 

He moves back into his own chair and the two of them sit in silence for awhile. She’s never been up on the roof of his building, but she already loves the view from up here. She can see the bay more clearly than she can from the loft. The beautiful reds, oranges, and purples from the sunset reflect off of the water and create a warm glow around the otherwise harsh skyline of downtown. 

It reminds her of a time when they used to come home after incredibly late nights and he would drag her to the roof with promises of coffee, if she’d just stay up thirty extra minutes to watch the sunrise with him.

Yesterday, those days felt like a lifetime ago. Now? Not so much. She can’t see _how_ at the moment, but it’s not a matter of _if_ anymore. Somehow, they will find their way back together. She just needs some more time. 

“I don’t want to pressure you into coming back, because I think we both know that I wouldn’t complain if you stayed as far away from this mess as possible,” he says after the sun has finally set and the only light comes from the moon and the lights from the city. “But if you’re going to do this, I really wish you’d do it with the team at your side.” 

“Would any of you really trust me to come back to the team?” she asks. 

“I’d trust you with my life,” Oliver says. 

She can’t help but roll her eyes at that. “I don’t think anyone is questioning whether or not I’d kill a man for you, Oliver,” she says. “I’m asking if you can all trust me to save the world.” 

“The answer to that will always be yes,” he says, and he’s so earnest that she can’t help but believe that, if nothing else, _he_ believes it. 

It’s amazing how much his faith in her has remained steadfast despite everything they’ve been through together. Despite him seeing her at hit rock bottom. 

She bites her lip, trying to figure out a way to tell him that his faith in her is not warranted. 

“Don’t lose yourself in the big picture and quit before you give yourself a chance,” he says, doing his best to calm her fears. “Focus on the facts. You won’t be alone. You can ease back into things at your own pace, nobody is rushing you. There are only three things we need from you. Show up; Work your computer magic; And run the coms when there is a mission.” 

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” she admits. 

“You’re more than qualified,” he says with a fond smile. 

“So, you need a Girl Wednesday again, huh?” she asks, turning in her chair so that she’s facing him head on. 

“I need a partner,” he says, shifting to face her as well. 

She reaches out her hand for his. Because this is the first step isn’t it? Agreeing to help. The hard part will come later and she’ll have to trust in the team to keep her on the right path. But she doesn’t need to think about all that right now. Right now, all she has to do is agree. 

Baby steps. 

Oliver grabs her hand and they shake on it, like they did the first time she agreed to help him with his mission. 

“It’s getting late,” Oliver says, standing up and helping her to her feet. “The girls will be wanting dinner by now. You’re welcome to stay.” 

“I think I’ve already crashed enough meals for the day, haven’t I?” she teases. “Enjoy your night with the girls. I’ll come get them tomorrow like we planned.” 

He nods and doesn’t push it. She gets the feeling that he needs the space to process everything that has happened just as much as she does. 

“Can I at least get a proper goodbye hug?” he asks. 

She doesn’t hesitate in wrapping her arms around his shoulders. His arms go around her waist and squeeze tight, rocking her back and forth for a moment. It should feel awkward, but it doesn’t.

“You changed your perfume,” Oliver comments as they pull away from one another and start to move back towards the stairs. 

“Yeah,” she says with a snort. “You know my mother. You can imagine what she said when she found out I was still wearing the same perfume that my ex-husband picked out for me.” 

“Probably the same thing she said when she forced me to go to shopping and said I couldn’t be seen in suits that you bought me,” he says. 

They both laugh, and for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t feel hallow. It feels like the start of something new. 

****

**2021**

_Number 1: Remain composed… Adrenaline will be pumping. You’ll be terrified, but you must remain calm. Know that we will be coming for you. You_ will _survive, but only if you stay calm and do your part._

_Number 2: Pay attention to everything around you. Memorize every detail about your captors, the environment, and yourself. Get as much information as you can. Figure out why you have been taken and if it’s more dangerous to stay or attempt escape. Then start planning._

_Number 3: Cooperate, but don’t let them hurt you… Don’t give them a reason to lash out. Listen to their demands when they aren’t going to cause you harm. Don’t fight them unless they attempt to touch you or hurt you. But don’t be an idiot. Don’t trust anything they give you, even in kindness. There are no allies in captivity._

_Number 4: Make them see you as a human. Build rapport with your captors. Force them to see you as more than a means to an end. The more they see you, the harder it will be to justify hurting you._

_1\. Remain composed._

_2\. Pay attention._

_3\. Cooperate._

_4\. Make them see you as human._

_Remain composed. Pay attention. Cooperate. Make them see you as human..._

_Felicity repeats the words over and over in her brain, like a mantra._

_Years ago, when she’d first joined the team, John had taken it upon himself to put her through Vigilante 101. This included a class on what to do if ever kidnapped, because in their line of work, kidnapping wasn’t a possibility, it was an inevitability._

_It’s not the first time she’s been kidnapped, but it’s certainly the first time that she’s ever been held for more than a few hours. She keeps waiting for Oliver to show up and rain down hell, but with each passing hour, it looks like less and less of a possibility._

_She may very well be alone in this. She may die down here without anyone finding her. They clearly want something from her, which is why she’s still alive, for now. But after they stabbed her mother and did god knows what to Grace and Ella…_

_God. Grace and Ella..._

_Remain composed… she reminds herself as the familiar feeling of panic sets in again._

_She needs to get out of here. Her daughters… Her daughters are still alive. She has to believe that. They are still alive and are counting on her to get home. For all she knows, The Order hurt them and she’s not there…_

_She’s not there because she’s being held captive by a terrorist organization that is killing Jewish people._

_She closes her eyes and tries to focus on the things she can control rather than all the things she can’t._

_She’s currently sitting against the headboard, her knees up against her chest, trying to keep every part of her body as far away from her captor as possible. The man sits at the end of the bed, silently waiting for her to eat the food he’s brought in for her, but she refuses. She remembers Digg’s words clearly. She’s not stupid enough to accept anything that he gives her, no matter how kind his smile appears on the surface. The zip ties around her hands and ankles paired with the pad locked door tell her everything she needs to know about him._

_Pay attention, Digg’s voice tells her. She opens her eyes and takes in everything she can. Her captor is wearing a black short-sleeved shirt. His arms are as big as Digg’s and are covered with tattoos and the occasional scar. There is a small Star of David surrounded with Cyrillic writing that she can only imagine is some kind of hate speech. His other tattoos are more random. There’s a portrait of a woman, a handprint that is small enough to be an infants, a list of names… She doesn’t make any immediate connections, but files it all away for later analysis._

_His boots are dirty, covered in what looks like mud? Sand? She can’t be sure. On his hip, he’s got a gun, a Taser, and a thin leather pouch with something cylinder shaped inside. He’s relaxed. He isn’t poised for a fight, which means he doesn’t think she can take him. On one hand that is good. She will have the element of surprise._

_On the other hand… she’s not sure she actually could take him. He’s massive, much bigger than Oliver or Digg. Even if she could find a way to overpower him — Sara taught her a thing or two about using her opponent's strength against them — he’s armed._

_An attempted escape won’t do her any good if she’s shot in the process._

_She needs to approach this another way._

_“You will have to eat eventually,” he says, pushing the tray towards her, but she simply kicks it right back at him._

_“He won't be happy with you,” he says._

_“Maybe if I knew who_ he _is...”_

_“Sorry, love,” he says. “Strict orders.”_

_She wants to gag at the petname. As if he could possibly have an ounce of affection for her and still hold her captive. She wants to gag, but she doesn’t. She schools her face into a neutral expression._

_Make them see you as a human._

_And that’s really the key, isn’t it? She realizes. She needs to find common ground with the man so that he will see her as a person rather than a bargaining piece… If that is even what she’s doing here. She can only assume that it is, considering somebody is very adamant that she not be hurt._

_Either that, or they need her expertise for something._

_“Do you have children?” she asks._

_He nods and says, “I have a son.”_

_She breathes a sigh of relief. He’s a parent. He’ll understand the need to get back to her children._

_“I have two daughters — A 3 year old and a newborn — both of whom need me alive,” she says._

_“Then I suggest you eat up.” He pushes the tray towards her again with a smirk._

_She groans in frustration and kicks the tray harder this time, causing it to go flying off the bed, the contents of the bowl now splattered on the wall._

_“You don't eat, that's your problem,” he says harshly. “When the starvation sets in, and you're crying cause your body is eating itself to stay alive, you remember this moment.”_

_He storms out of the room and slams the door. A second later she hears the lock slip into place._

_Don’t give them a reason to lash out, Digg had told her._

_She looks down at the zip ties on her wrists and wants desperately to get them off, but she can’t. Not yet. She can’t give away the fact that she knows how to break herself out of them until she has a solid escape plan in place._

****

**2026**

“Are we sure this is it?” John asks as they walk down the back alley of a Japanese restaurant. 

“This is the address that Felicity gave us,” Thea says. “One of these doors should have a keypad.” 

They look around the dark alley for a minute before Oliver sees a set of stairs hidden behind a dumpster. 

“I think I’ve got it,” he says. 

Thea makes her way down the stairs first and puts the code into the keypad, smiling when it opens on the first try. 

“Welcome to the Arrow Cave,” she says waving them all inside. 

“We’re not calling it that,” Oliver says, unamused. 

“We’ve been calling it that for years, Ollie,” Thea says, with a smirk. 

“Yeah, _Ollie_ ,” Roy says, knowing full well that he only allows Thea to get away with that nickname. 

He rolls his eyes and follows in after them. 

Oliver immediately starts taking stock of the equipment and making comparisons the second he steps through the door. The training area lined with mats is nice, but he wouldn’t have spent the money on a Nexersys. The old Wing Chun Dummys work just as well at a quarter of the price. There’s a hallway with lockers and what looks like a shower area that’s nicer than anything they ever had, but the set of motorcycles sitting by the garage door have nothing on his Ducati. 

“Oh, I totally call dibs on this,” Roy says, picking up what looks like a custom compound bow that had been sitting in a glass case that was otherwise empty. “I wonder why none of them were using it, it’s sweet.” 

“Do people still say sweet?” Thea asks, going over to Roy to playfully try to grab the bow out of his hands. 

Oliver doesn't bother joining in on the argument. He's still got the compound bow Felicity had designed for him when he first came back from Lian Yu after the Undertaking and he’s never planning on parting with it. 

“It was supposed to be a birthday gift for Miyo,” Felicity says, coming out from a room marked _Server Room_ , with a handwritten note on the door that said, _This is Tomo’s happy place. Stop having sex here!_ Which is crossed out with a pink pen and replaced with the message, _Don’t tell me what to do._

“Tomo was going to give it to her next week,” she says sadly. “I figured at least one of you would put it to good use.” 

Roy puts it back in the case and nobody touches it. The reminder that they are only here because the New Team Arrow had all been killed two nights ago sucks any previous eagerness out of the room. Roy, Thea, and Digg walk away to check out the rest of the space, but Oliver lost interest the second he’d spotted Felicity. 

Her hair is up in a messy bun, the way she only wears it when she needs it out of her face but doesn’t have time to pull it back into her typical ponytail. There are dark circles under her eyes that have been carefully covered with makeup, but are noticeable with a close inspection. She taps her stylus against her tablet repeatedly in the way that tells him she’s had too many cups of coffee today. Her feet are bare and her dress is already wrinkled. 

“How long have you been here?” Oliver asks, knowingly. 

“Me? Not that long,” she says, but he can see right through her. 

“Felicity,” he says her name, fixing her with a look that says, ‘please don’t lie to me.’ 

“I dropped the kids off at my mom’s after brunch,” she says. 

“It’s nearly dinner,” he says with a glare. “You could have called us and told us to come in earlier so you weren’t working alone.” 

“I wanted to make sure I was ready when you showed up,” she says, shrugging off his concern. 

“Have you at least had something to eat?” he asks, looking her up and down, trying to figure out if she’s looking a little too thin for his liking. Felicity is usually one to stress eat, but when her anxiety gets too high, she loses track of time and starts skipping meals. It’s something he hasn’t seen since her father died, but knows that the death of Team Arrow could easily send her into another spiral. 

“Don’t worry,” she says, laying a comforting hand on his arm. “Mrs. Kato’s been plying me with an unhealthy amount of yakitori. She stress cooks as much as I stress eat, so we make a good pair.” 

“Mrs. Kato?” he asks, confused. “Tomo and Miyo’s mom? I thought she’d died.” 

He doesn’t know a lot about Tomo and Miyo, but he’d done his homework on all of the new team when they’d first donned the masks. From what he’d discovered, the Kato’s had been murdered, which was why the siblings had decided to become vigilantes. 

“She did,” Felicity confirms with a sad smile. “Mrs. Kato is their grandmother. She owns the restaurant above us.” 

“And she knows you’re helping the team?” he asks. 

So much for secrecy. He’s going to have to run a background check on the woman to make sure that she’s clear. With heroes being targeted and Felicity’s close call the other night, he’s not willing to take any chances. 

“Don’t worry,” she says. “I didn’t tell her about you guys. But she already knew about me. I just let her believe I’m down here alone.” 

“And when she comes down here and sees the rest of us?” Oliver asks. 

“She won’t,” she says. “She doesn’t know the passcode. She calls down on the intercom.” 

“Well, at least you’re eating, even if you’re clearly not sleeping,” he says. 

She looks annoyed and it seems like she wants to say something back, but doesn’t. Instead, she simply turns on her heels and walks into the main room. 

He sighs, trying to decide if he crossed a line or not. After their talk last night, he was sure that they were both on the same path. It’d be a slow path, but they’d get there together. For the first time since they broke up, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Perhaps not. 

Yesterday, he’d been allowed to hold her and comfort her. He’d been allowed to worry over her. Now? All he’d done was express concern that she wasn’t sleeping. He’s always been concerned about her well being, even before they were together. Is that so wrong? 

Felicity notices that he hasn’t followed her and turns back around to look at him. She must see the disappointment and confusion on his face, because she sighs deeply and gives him an apologetic look. 

“I’m sorry… Baby steps right?” she says. “I need to know that I can take care of myself without you holding my hand.”

He gets where she’s coming from. He knows how hard being back here is for her. She’s still trying to work through her issues over what happened. The lack of faith she has in her ability to handle herself is weighing heavily on her. Him checking in on her isn’t going to make her feel independent. 

But at the same point, he needs to know that she will take care of herself if she’s going to be back on the team. He needs to trust that she will be okay. That her being here isn’t going to derail the progress she’s made. He might need her to be his Overwatch, but more importantly, he needs her to be healthy. He needs her to be Grace and Ella’s mother. He needs her strong, recovered and _his._

After their kiss last night, it's so clear that he needs her back in his life. He needs her in his again. His partner. His confidant. His lover. His _wife._

“And I need to know that you’ll take care of yourself without me reminding you,” he says. 

“Fair enough,” she says with a kind smile this time, letting him know that she’s not really annoyed with him. 

He wants to reach out and touch her — a hand on her shoulder, a squeeze of her hand, something small — but he refrains. 

They both walk into the main room where Roy is playing around with one of the computer screens and Thea and Digg are lamenting over the weapons cabinet. 

“I know it’s been awhile, but my computers are still off limits,” Felicity says, giving Roy a playful smack on the arm. 

“Good to have you back, Blondie,” Roy says, causing Felicity to blush. 

And it is, Oliver thinks. It’s so good to have her back. It wouldn’t have felt right without her. 

“You should all take a seat,” Felicity says, gesturing to a conference table in the center of the room. “I’ve got a lot of information to fill you in on and a lead that needs following in a few hours.” 

They sit down and she passes them each a tablet that has been loaded with information on each of the past attacks, including stats on the victims, the damage, and as much information on the attackers as is available. 

“For the past 3 months an unknown terrorist organization has been paying off other groups to conduct attacks around the country. We believe — _I_ believe —” 

Felicity quickly corrects herself and has to pause to take a deep breath. Oliver can see the guilt swimming in her eyes as she thinks about Team Arrow and their deaths. He wants to get up and comfort her, but Thea gives him a warning look, silently telling him to leave it alone. 

He’s about to ignore Thea and say something anyway, when Felicity clears her throat and continues talking. 

“I believe that the cities aren’t the actual target, but instead, it’s the heroes that defend them. To date, 15 heroes have been killed and Barry has been framed for murder and run out of the country. This leaves 8 major cities unguarded.” 

As she’s explaining this, Oliver flips through the information on the tablet, filling himself in on the details of the various attacks and trying to look for any common threads. 

“Do we have any idea who is orchestrating this?” John asks. 

“None,” Felicity says. “We know which groups are getting paid off, but we don’t know who is doing the paying.” 

“I thought The Final Order was behind this,” Roy asks. “They are the ones that took City Hall looking for Oliver.” 

“They were,” Thea says. “Felicity’s telling us there is somebody else out there who’s worse than The Final Order.”

Oliver tries not to react to the news, but if the understanding look Felicity gives him is any indication, he fails. He can’t imagine many things worse than the hell that The Final Order brought to Star City five years ago. Of course, he can think of one group that’s worse… But they are gone. Felicity had made sure of that before they’d quit the team. 

“Awesome,” Roy says, flatly. “Just what I wanted. To deal with somebody crazier than the craziest.”

Oliver keeps his eyes on the tablet, soaking in as much information as he can. He passes by pictures of collapsed buildings; Crime scene photos of the Marvel Family, or what was left of them after the explosion. None of the attacks obviously connect to each other, except for the fact that each one has resulted in the death of a mask. 

He pauses over a spreadsheet of banking records and it takes him a minute to understand what he’s seeing. Over the years, he’s come to understand what money trails look like after watching Felicity work enough times. 

“It looks like you found a single account that’s linked to all of the organizations?” he asks, tilting his screen towards Felicity so that she can see what he’s looking at. 

“I did,” Felicity says. “The groups are getting paid off through fake IRS accounts that appear to be tax refunds. Each group was paid one million dollars over the span of 12 months with the final payment arriving within a day of an attack. It’s how we figured out City Hall was going to be hit… not that we had enough time to stop it.” 

“So who’s paying them off?” Thea asks. 

“I have no idea,” Felicity says. “I haven’t been able to breach their firewall to find out.” 

They all share a look. If Felicity Smoak, one of the best hackers in the world, couldn’t breach the firewall and come up with a name… He’s nervous. If the rest of the team’s faces are any indication, he’s not alone in that. 

“Do we know what they are after at least?” Thea asks. 

Felicity shakes her head. 

“Well that’s not entirely true,” Oliver says. “We know that they were after the contents of that safe.” 

“What safe?” Roy asks. 

Oliver looks to Felicity to answer that question, because he’d never gotten an answer to that question himself, either. She’s biting her lip and doesn’t seem to want to talk about it. 

“The safe that got Team Arrow killed,” Thea answers when it’s clear nobody else is going to talk. “That’s what you all were doing two nights ago at that apartment complex, right?” 

“I’m not positive that anyone was actually after Manuel Sanchez’s research,” Felicity says. “It was just a feeling.” 

“Since when is your gut wrong?” John asks. 

Felicity laughs humorously. 

Oliver knows that she’s thinking back to the split second decision she’d made years ago that had cost them everything. He can see it in her eyes, in the way she’s staring at the ceiling and very obviously counting to ten to stop herself from becoming overwhelmed. 

“Who’s Manuel Sanchez?” Roy asks. 

“He works for Palmer Tech and he’s doing research on nuclear fusion,” Felicity says, purposely mumbling the last part so they don’t hear her. 

Oliver does. He stops what he’s doing and looks up at Felicity in shock. She hadn’t told him that Palmer Tech was researching nuclear fusion. After everything that they went through when they were kidnapped, he feels like that’s something she should have mentioned to him. How is it, that being on the team — being with _him_ — brings up too many bad memories for her, but she can work on developing a fusion reactor? 

“Am I supposed to know what that is?” Roy asks. 

“Nuclear fusion is essentially the power of the sun,” Oliver says. “It’s what powers a hydrogen bomb. So that begs the question, what _exactly_ is Palmer Tech doing researching power sources and enabling terrorists to destroy entire cities?” 

It’s harsh. He doesn’t need to see John or Thea’s surprised looks to know that. But he doesn’t care. Felicity, of all people, should know better. 

“I wouldn’t technically say nuclear fusion is the power of the sun… The sun _is_ a natural fusion reactor,” Felicity says, defensively. He can hear the fight in her voice and he knows she’s about to use her angry voice. “But sure, let’s simplify it for those of us that have never passed a science class. Shall we?” 

Yep. There it is. The famous Felicity Smoak angry voice. Well, she can yell all she wants. He’s not backing down from this. Palmer Tech has no business researching something they can’t control, especially when they can’t even guarantee the research’s safety. 

“Fusion power is essentially sustainable, renewable energy,” she says. “The kind of energy that can — Oh I don’t know — Save the world.” she says, clearly on a roll. He knows better than to try and stop her when she’s like this. 

“Our dependance on fossil fuels is killing us. Within the next 50 years, there will be no more natural gas, no oil, and no coal. The cost of energy is going to continue to rise until only the top 1% will be able to afford it, and then it will be gone. Every option we have for sustainable energy isn’t enough to maintain our current lifestyle,” she says. “On top of that, our world continues to become more and more polluted as we go on. Climate change is a real thing, no matter what rich, white Republicans want you to believe. Fusion power is undoubtedly the solution. So yes, Palmer Tech funded research on it and is going to develop a fusion reactor.” 

“Okay, fair enough, but that doesn’t solve the problem of this technology falling into the wrong hands the second you develop it,” Oliver says, growing angry. 

He doesn’t understand how she’s not more concerned about this. 

“I’m not just waving around the contents of Sanchez’s research for all to find,” Felicity yells. “I thought you said you trusted me.” 

Oliver is about to argue with her when John cuts them both off with a wave of his hand. 

“Let’s all calm down, okay?” John says. “Felicity, this fusion research sounds really important. I’m assuming you have a plan for keeping it safe, other than leaving it in the basement of Verdant?” 

“The safe that we had it in before is the best solution,” she says. “In a few days, HR will have cleared all of the R&D department and the research can be brought back to Palmer Tech, where we will have increased security monitoring the safe 24/7.” 

“That’s good,” John says. “We can all see the value in the research Palmer Tech is doing. I think Oliver is expressing concern that the research could fall into the wrong hands and be used with catastrophic consequences.”

“No, Oliver is expressing concern that _I’m_ going to use the research for catastrophic consequences,” Felicity says, glaring at him. 

“That’s _not_ what I’m saying,” he says, rubbing his hands over his face in frustration. 

“It’s what you’re thinking,” she says. “Because this is exactly what _they_ were asking me to do and I did. At least, I _tried_. Science just wasn’t there yet. And now it is and you’re scared that I’m going to use it. To do what?” 

“Felicity, that’s obviously not what I meant,” he says. “I know that you’re not going to use the research for anything bad and I shouldn’t have implied that you were. But you and I both know what would happen if this fell into the wrong hands, so you understand why I was shocked at first.” 

He’s about to say that he didn’t think she’d risk developing it at all with how little she trusts herself, but he holds that back. He is trying to defuse the situation, not make it worse. 

“Are we going to talk about what just happened or are we going to keep pretending that the three of us believe you’ve both told us everything about what happened when you were kidnapped?” Thea asks. 

Oliver looks to Felicity to see how she is going to respond. He’s always taken her lead on this, because it’s her story to tell more than it is his. 

“Let’s just say that this wouldn’t be the first terrorist organization looking to build a new-age hydrogen bomb and call it a day,” Felicity says. 

“Okay…” Roy says slowly. “So where does that leave us? You said there’s a lead to track down or something?” 

“Yes,” Felicity says, moving over to one of the large screens against the wall and pressing a few windows until a video feed comes up. “Miyo managed to get a camera installed in the basement of Benjamin Hawthorn’s office — He was a captain for The Order, before somebody killed him. We thought that his office may have been used as a headquarters of sorts for The Order, but I’ve been going through the footage and haven’t found anything out of the ordinary, except for this.” 

Felicity rewinds the video until they see a man dressed in a FedEx uniform comes in and drops off a box and takes a stack of mail. She pauses it. 

“So an office building uses FedEx… I don’t get it,” Thea says. 

“That same deliveryman comes everyday at 10pm,” Felicity says. “I know our FedEx flat out refuses to pick up anything after 5.” 

“Who’s picking up the packages?” John asks. 

“Somebody different every time,” she explains. “Nobody connected, I’ve checked. Whoever is picking up the boxes probably has no idea what they’re pushing.” 

“So what’s the delivery man's story?” Oliver asks. 

“I loose track of him the second he leaves the building,” she says with a deep sigh. She must have been working this for awhile with no luck based on how frustrated she is. 

“No cameras?” John asks. 

She shakes her head. 

“Somebody has looped the video,” she says. “They’re good too. I almost didn’t catch it, for awhile I thought I must have been missing an exit somewhere.” 

“So what, two to tail, one to grab the box, one to stay here and help you go through all of this?” Roy asks. 

Oliver nods along with John. It’s a solid plan. 

“Roy and I will tail him and let you know if we need backup,” Thea says, giving John a pointed look as she does. 

“I’ll grab the box,” John says. 

Let it never be said that Thea Queen is subtle. 

He stays at the conference table, going through the information Felicity compiled on the tablet again under the pretense that he’s looking for clues. In reality, he’s just waiting for everyone to leave so that he can talk to Felicity. 

He watches the three of them suit up to head out. Felicity moves to the computers to set up the coms and prepare for the mission. She hands each of them their in-ear com unit and tests it before sending them on their way. 

‘Apologize,’ Thea mouths to him on her way out the door. 

He waves her on, annoyed. Of course he’s going to apologize. He doesn’t need to be told that. 

“They’ll be okay, right?” Felicity says. “I know it’s been awhile… but there’s no reason they shouldn’t be okay?” 

“Roy and Thea have each other and won’t let anything happen to the other. And we certainly don’t have to worry about Digg,” he says, reassuring her. 

“It’s a reconnaissance mission,” she says. “They’ll be fine.” 

He can still see the worry in her eyes. She would be worried regardless with them going back into the field for the first time in years, but he knows it’s only made worse with the recent deaths of the New Team Arrow. 

Oliver stands up and pulls his chair over to the computer desk to sit next to Felicity. He reaches over and grabs onto her hand, giving it a squeeze. 

“I’m being silly,” she says, giving him a teary smile.

“Never,” he says, wiping a stray tear that’s making it’s way down her cheek. 

She takes her hand back and starts typing away at her computer, and he tries not to feel like she’s brushed him off. He knows that she has a job to do and he’s all for her doing that job so that Thea, Roy, and Digg are safe. 

“I’ve been so busy trying to hunt down both The Final Order and The Mysterious Group of Evil that I haven’t had much time to look at what can be done about Barry,” Felicity says. “I could really use your help on that.” 

He recognizes this as the olive branch that it is and nods. 

“I’ll see what I can do,” he says, pushing his chair away from the desk to move over to another set of computers. He’s about to get started on his work, when he turns back to her and says, “Felicity, you know that I’m sorry, right? I do trust you. That wasn't what I meant to imply.”

“I know,” she says, giving him a small smile. “I think I’m still a little sensitive.” 

Their conversation ends as Thea’s voice comes over the loudspeaker and Felicity turns back to her computers to focus on the mission. He starts researching a way to clear Barry’s name. If this group is as bad as it seems, they are going to need all hands on deck to take them down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love! I'd love to hear what you think about the story so far, and any conspiracy theories you may have on what is happening in Star City!


	8. Calm Before the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, so much thanks goes out to my personal cheerleader/beta Emma (@emisfritish)! Without whom, this story would never have made it onto paper!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**_2021_ **

It’s 7am by the time Oliver makes his way up the stairs to the loft. He’s exhausted and beaten down. Yet another night has passed and still he has nothing to show for it. Nobody, nobody _knows where Felicity is, no matter how many leads he tracks down. It’s been 9 days. It’s disheartening._

_9 days without Felicity. 9 days without her being home to tuck the girls in at night. 9 days without her smile to brighten up the room, without her voice carrying through their home. For the last 9 days he’s had to push back the sinking feeling that, once again, he’s been left alone. Somebody he’s cared about more than life itself has been ripped from his arms and he’d been unable to stop it._

_Again._

_He’s lost somebody important again._

_Only this time it’s worse than Sara slipping out of his hands when the Gambit went down. It’s worse than watching his father commit suicide. Or watching Yao Fei die. Watching Shado die. Worse than losing Sara on that freighter or having to kill his one time friend, Slade. He’s witnessed a lot of death and experienced a lot of loss over the years. Akio. Tommy. His mom. Sara. Maseo. Laurel._

_But this loss will be the one to break him. There’s no way he’ll survive it. He can’t possibly go on after this. He can’t look his children in the face. He can’t hear Grace ask where her mother is once more. He can’t do any of it._

_When he’d said, “I Do” all the heartache was supposed to be over. All the years he’d lived in fear that he would die alone, unworthy of love, had vanished. The last five years of marriage have been everything to him._

_How had he been so naive? How had he been stupid enough to assume that his days of losing those around him were over?_

_Oliver hands shake as he fumbles with the key to the door. He tries putting the key into the lock, but he can’t make it fit. Then he hears the click of the lock and suddenly Thea’s opening the door and looking at him in confusion._

_“Are you okay?” she asks, looking him up and down. Her eyes land on his arm and widen in shock. He hadn’t even noticed he was bleeding, much less that the blood was seeping through his henley._

_“Come on,” Thea says, dragging him inside and quickly bringing him into the bathroom before Grace can see him._

_“I’m fine,” he says before she can even ask._

_“You look like shit,” she argues, digging under the sink until she finds the first aid kit. “You couldn’t at least have cleaned yourself up before you came home?”_

_“I didn’t realize I was bleeding,” he says. “I just wanted to get home to the girls.”_

_“Oliver—”_

_“How are they?” he asks, cutting off whatever concerned lecture she’s about to give him._

_“About as good as can be expected,” Thea says with a shrug. “Grace woke up with another nightmare and keeps asking where Felicity is. Ella won’t take her bottle. She doesn’t like the formula, but we don’t have any breast milk left…”_

_And that’s what does it for him. That’s what sends him over the edge and has him crying. They’ve had to switch Ella to formula because Felicity’s not here to feed her. Felicity isn’t here to nurse their newborn child because he hasn’t been able to find her. Grace is waking up with nightmares because she’s traumatized from watching her grandmother get stabbed and her mother kidnapped in front of her._

_He’s not only failed Felicity, but now he’s failed his daughters._

_God. They are never going to recover from this._

_“Hey, stop,” Thea says, wrapping her arms around him. He hugs her back and buries his face in her shirt. “We are going to find her. You don’t get to give up on her yet.”_

_“It’s been 9 days,” he cries._

_“And you were marooned on Lian Yu for 5 years. People can withstand awful things for a long period of time. Don’t write Felicity off just yet,” she says, her voice conveying a lot more strength than he’s able to feel._

_The thought of Felicity having to endure even a fraction of what he went through on the island isn’t comforting in the least, and she should know that._

_“The Final Order_ kills _Jews,” he says._

_“Yes, and they parade them around to make a political statement,” Thea says. “But they’ve had Felicity for 9 days and a body has yet to turn up. If they wanted her dead, she’d be dead.”_

_“Thinking about her out there, alone and scared while they torture her isn’t much better,” he says, pulling back and rubbing his hands over his face to wipe away the tears. He knows that feeling. He’s been there far too many times himself, and it’s the last thing he ever wanted Felicity to have to go through._

_“I know,” she says, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “But losing hope isn’t going to help us get her back any sooner. She’s strong. She’ll be okay until we can find her, but you have to take care of yourself, too.”_

_Oliver nods. He knows that Thea is right. He can’t give up now. He can’t afford to break down now. Not when Felicity is still relying on him to get her back. To bring her home. Not when Grace and Ella still need him. They’ve already lost one parent, they can’t lose him too…_

_No. He can’t think like that. Felicity can’t be gone._

_“Come on. Take off your shirt and I’ll patch you up,” she says._

_He pulls his shirt off, wincing as the fabric irritates the cut on his arm. He hadn’t noticed it until she pointed it out earlier, but now that he has, it stings like a bitch._

_“It’s deep. You’re going to need stitches,” she says, examining the wound closely. He’s not surprised. Getting cut with a sword tends to mean stitches from his experience._

_“I should call John,” Thea says, clearly nervous at the prospect of having to stitch him up._

_“Can you just do it?” he groans. The last thing he wants to do is sit here and wait for Digg to make his way over to the loft._

_“It’ll scar if I do it,” she says._

_Oliver stares at her, blankly. She’s got to be kidding him, right? By this point, his body is at least 75% scar tissue._

_“That’s the least of my concerns,” he says, when she doesn’t appear to give in._

_“Fine,” Thea says with a roll of her eyes._

_She digs through the first aid kit until she finds the suture kit. Oliver closes his eyes and tries not to think about how much it’s going to hurt when Thea’s inexperienced hands drive a needle into his already burning skin._

_When Thea finally threads the first stitch through, he can’t help but cry out._

_“We should have given you lidocaine,” she says, wincing at his pain._

_“Felicity doesn’t like to keep any of that in the house with the girls,” he says through gritted teeth._

_“Auntie Tia?” Grace’s small voice carries through the door. Oliver can see her feet through the crack at the bottom of the door. “Daddy?”_

_“Hey, Princess,” he calls out, trying to sound as normal as possible. “Aunt Thea is helping me with something, we’ll be right out.”_

_“Did you find Mommy?” Grace asks._

_Oliver’s heart breaks when he hears it. It’s the same question she’s been asking him ever since Felicity was taken._

_He reaches out to grab the doorknob, but Thea puts her hand on the door, preventing him from opening it._

_“You can’t let her see you like this,” she whispers._

_“I’m not going to have this conversation with a wall between us,” he says, giving her a pointed look. “Move.”_

_Thea rolls her eyes, but relents. He opens the door to see Grace on the other side, sucking her thumb and holding her favorite stuffed turtle in one hand. When she sees Oliver, her eyes widen in shock._

_“The bad man hurted you, too?” Grace says, moving into the room to get a closer look. He pulls her into his lap._

_“Don’t touch it, okay?” he says, as Grace leans in close to look at his cut._

_“I kiss it better,” Grace says, but Oliver pulls his arm out of her reach._

_“You can kiss it better once Aunt Thea is done, alright?” he says._

_Grace sighs and rolls her eyes at him, much like Thea is doing at the moment._

_“This is a bad idea, Oliver,” Thea says. “She’s already having nightmares.”_

_“And this isn’t going to make them any better or worse,” he tells Thea before turning to Grace. “Hey, I’m looking for Mommy. Okay?”_

_“Okay,” Grace says, snuggling into his side, a frown on her face._

_“I’m going to bring her back,” he promises._

_“Yeah,” she says, not looking entirely convinced. It’s the 9th night in a row he’s made the same promise to her and so far he’s been unable to deliver._

_“Your arm is beeding, Daddy,” Grace says, giving him a stern look. “You have to be careful. You bake easy.”_

_He chuckles at that. Giving her a fond look as he kisses the top of her head._

_“You bake easy?” Thea asks him._

_“You break easily,” he says, telling her what Grace meant. “It’s what I tell her every time she gets hurt.”_

_Thea nods and goes back to stitching him up. Though it still hurts, it’s less painful now that Grace is in his arms distracting him._

_“Did the bad man go to time out when he hurted you?” Grace asks._

_“Yeah, he did. Permanently,” Oliver says, thinking back to how he’d knocked the man out and left him tied up for the SCPD to find. “But I’m alright. Bad men can’t hurt me. That’s what all these are.”_

_He points to scars on his chest. Grace lifts her hand to start tracing them, much like Felicity often does._

_“Mommy says they’re strong marks. The more you have the stronger you are,” Grace says._

_“That must mean I’m pretty strong then, huh?” Oliver says. “Want to know a secret?”_

_Grace nods her head, but doesn’t look up from where she’s currently staring at a particularly nasty scar he’d gotten from Ra’s al Ghul._

_“Mommy has strong marks, too,” Oliver says._

_“Mommy has to fight the bad man?” Grace asks, her bottom lip starting to quiver. He knows she’s about to start sobbing before the first tear falls._

_“She’s okay,” he says. “I’m gonna fight with her. She’s going to come home.”_

_“Mommy’s a-posed to light the m-orah,” she manages to get out right before she sucks in a big shaky breath and starts sobbing._

_Oliver freezes._

_“It’s Hanukkah,” he says, shooting Thea a panicked look._

_Now, not only has Felicity missed Thanksgiving… now she’s missing Hanukkah. They all have. When Thanksgiving had come last week, there wasn’t much to be thankful for. They’d skipped right over it, not willing to celebrate with Donna in the hospital and Felicity gone. Now it’s Hanukkah. He hadn’t even realized it._

_Their Menorah was still sitting by the window, where Felicity had pulled it out of their holiday things the weekend before she’d been taken. She had been so excited for Hanukkah. She thought that Grace was finally old enough to actually understand some of the old games and traditions. Oliver had promised to try making latkes for the first time this year rather than picking them up from the place down the street._

_They were supposed to be celebrating as a family. He’d completely forgotten about it. But clearly Grace hadn’t. Felicity had a countdown on the refrigerator… Grace must have noticed that they’d already missed the first two nights._

_As if he wasn't filled with enough guilt, now he can add this to the long list of things he's failed at. Neither Felicity or Donna are here to light the candles and say the prayers each night. He hasn’t been here either. It’s the holidays, and Grace and Ella have barely seen him._

_Did The Order know that they’d taken Felicity for the holidays? Was that their plan all along? To steal her away and ruin Hanukkah for them. Make her suffer, knowing that she was missing the holidays with her family? To what end? What was the point, other than to cause them misery? And when did it end? Once Hanukkah was over, then what? It doesn’t make any sense._

_“We’ll light the candles tonight,” he says, trying to reassure Grace as she struggles to breathe through her tears. He rubs her back with the one arm he has and glares at Thea to hurry up and bandage him up so that he can hold Grace properly._

_“You… don’t… even… know… the… prayers,” she says taking big gulps of air between each word._

_“Breathe, Sweetie.” Oliver rubs her back, trying to calm her down before she gets so worked up that she starts gagging. “We’ll go to the hospital and light the candles with Grandma. Breathe.”_

_Thea sends him a look that says, ‘I told you she can’t handle this,’ while quickly finishing wrapping a bandage around his arm._

_“She needs to be with her family,” he responds to Thea while wrapping both of his arms around Grace._

_“Shh,” he whispers into her ear. “I’m right here.”_

_“I want Mommy,” she cries._

_“I want Mommy, too,” he admits, breaking down and crying with her. Nothing is worse, as a parent, than watching your child cry and knowing you can’t do anything to ease their pain._

_Their family doesn’t work without Felicity. None of them will ever be okay until she’s home._

****

**2026**

It’s 5am by the time Felicity walks through the door and she’s exhausted. The lead she’d tracked down thanks to the cameras in Benjamin Hawthorn’s office turned out to be a trap. Thea and Roy had walked right into an ambush and had barely held their own before Digg and Oliver could get there to back them up. 

What’s worse, now The Order knows that there are still heroes in town. They’ve lost the element of surprise. Who knows how soon it will take The Order to mount a new attack to try and kill them. She’s guessing it won’t be long. Felicity messed up last night, and it nearly cost Thea and Roy their lives. 

“Long night, Sweetie?” her mom asks from her spot on the couch. 

Felicity groans when she sees her. Donna Lance will never admit it, but she’s starting to get old. She really shouldn’t be sleeping on the couch anymore with her back. 

“You didn’t sleep down here, did you?” Felicity says. “You know you could have used my bed.” 

“Oh, you know me,” she says, waving off her concern. Felicity doesn’t miss the way she winces as she stretches though. “I fell asleep watching _Golden Girls_. Did you know that this Netflix thing gives you all these TV shows and movies with the click of a button?” 

“Yeah, for almost twenty years now,” Felicity says with a fond roll of her eyes. She makes her way over to the couch and sits down next to her mom. 

“What kept you so late?” her mom asks, looking concerned. “Did you find the men that murdered your friends?”

Felicity hadn’t bothered lying to her mom about where she would be last night. Donna had already learned about Team Arrow back when Felicity had been kidnapped a few years ago. When she’d decided to come back to the team yesterday, her mother had been fully supportive of her. She’d offered to watch the girls at night while Felicity worked with Oliver, Thea, Digg, and Roy. 

“If by find, you mean let the team be led right into a trap? Then yes,” she says with a deep sigh. 

“Is everyone alright?” 

“Roy got shot in the arm,” Felicity explains. Her mother gasps but Felicity cuts her off before she can start to worry. “Digg says it’s just a through and through and everyone promises that it’s not a big deal.” 

“Do you believe them?” her mom asks. 

“I guess,” she says. “I mean, with them you never quite know if they’re just being brave. But I’ve seen much worse. We gave him some blood and he seemed fine when I left this morning. That’s why I came home so late today. I was helping John patch Roy up.” 

“Thea must have been worried,” her mom says, wrapping her arm around Felicity and pulling her closer until Felicity’s resting her head against her shoulder. 

“She was more angry than worried,” she explains. “I guess Roy only got shot because he didn’t trust Thea to take care of herself.” 

“That does sound like Thea,” her mom says with a laugh. “It sounds like everyone’s alright then. So why Mr. Square Bear Face?” 

“I don’t have — Are we really still calling it that?” she asks, giving her mom an unamused look. 

“What’s wrong, Sweetheart?” 

Felicity doesn’t answer the question right away. At this point, it would probably be easier to list the things that were right. 

She’s exhausted. She’s barely slept since Tomo and the others were murdered. She’s just spent the entire night awake nursing a good friend back to health after she sent him out on a bogus mission. She hasn’t spent much quality time with her daughters lately and she’s worried about how that is affecting Grace. Then there’s Oliver… She has no idea what she's doing there or how she even feels about their relationship. The list goes on and on. 

Her list of failures.

“I don’t know if I’m making the right decision going back…” 

“Oh.” Her mom sounds a bit shocked by this, but covers it quickly. “Well, it would seem you have two options.” 

Felicity sits up and looks at her expectantly. 

“You can continue to help the team because you know that they need you and would be lost without you.” 

“Or?” 

“Or you can quit and let Oliver and the others take care of all of this without you and continue to hide from the person you are,” she says. 

“Is there a third option?” Felicity asks.

“Is this still about your father?” Donna asks. 

Felicity can only shrug. Of course it’s about her father. It’s also about all the other stuff that had happened the year that she’d been kidnapped and The Final Order had essentially taken over the city, but she’s never been honest with her mom about everything that happened when she was gone, and she doesn’t want to start now. 

“You can’t continue to give him this kind of power in your life,” her mom says, running her hands through Felicity’s hair. “Trust me. It will make you miserable.” 

Too late, she thinks, but knows better than to say it. Her mom is worried about her enough without letting her see just how bad Felicity’s pity party has gotten. 

“I should go upstairs and check on the girls,” she says, changing the subject. 

Her mom’s look tells her she knows exactly what Felicity’s doing, but she lets it go. 

“Of course,” her mom says. “Do you still need me to take the girls to school?” 

“No, I can do it today, thanks,” Felicity says. “Go home and get some rest.” 

“Oh I’ll be going home, but I won’t be resting,” her mom says. “Quentin's been texting me the most naughty things—” 

“Mom!” Felicity exclaims, covering her ears in disgust. “I told you. No. I don’t want to hear about your sex life. I’m happy for you, but stop.” 

“Well, alright then,” her mom gives her a hug then goes to the door to grab her purse and shoes. “Let me know if you need me to come over tonight and watch them again.” 

“I’m planning on staying in tonight,” Felicity says. “Oliver and the gang all have a mayoral event to attend, so no Arrow-ing.” 

“Well, if that changes, let me know,” she says, putting on her coat. “You know, I can’t do much for you all in the way of fighting crime, but I can at least watch the girls while you all do.” 

“Donna Lance, I’m pretty sure if you wanted to, you could totally kick ass,” Felicity says as she makes her way over to the front door and opens it for her mom. 

“And look good doing it,” Donna says with a wink. 

Felicity gives her one last hug as she walks out the door then closes it, locking the door behind her. 

She slips her heels off and sighs in relief when her sore feet hit the cool wood floors. She debates starting a pot of coffee, but thinks better of it. She’ll do it later. Right now, all she really wants to do is check on the girls and remind herself that they are alright. It’s so easy to get caught up in the whirlwind that is vigilante life and forget the real reason why she’s doing any of it. Why, against her better judgement, she’s agreed to come back to the team. 

Grace and Ella. 

She needs to make sure the world is safe for them. 

Felicity makes her way up the stairs. She peeks into Ella’s room and holds back a fond laugh when she sees how she’s asleep half on, half off the bed. She doesn’t want to wake anyone up before she absolutely has to. Neither of the Queen girls are morning people. A trait they’d inherited from Oliver. 

Felicity quietly steps into the room and over to Ella. She carefully picks her daughter up and puts her back on the bed properly. She then untangles the blankets and covers her back up, tucking her in nice and tight like she always liked. 

“I said no peanuts in my waffles. I have to go to Saturn. Hold my calls,” Ella says, talking in her sleep. That, Oliver likes to tell her, Ella got entirely from her. Both the nonsensical statements and the authoritative tone. 

Well, Oliver had specifically said bossy, but Felicity prefered authoritative. 

Felicity kisses Ella on the forehead then tiptoes back out of the room and closes the door until there is only a crack open. Ella hates sleeping with the door closed, but she’s also the crankiest when she’s awoken by noise in the hallway. 

She checks in on Grace who is sound asleep and lightly snoring, an open book precariously hanging off the side of the bed. Felicity bookmarks the page that Grace was on and sets it on the nightstand beside the bed before giving Grace a kiss and walking back out of the room. 

By the time Felicity makes it to her bedroom, she’s running on fumes. She closes her eyes and makes it to her bed by memory alone. Once her thigh hit the top of the mattress, she falls, face first, into the bed. 

It’s then and there, she decides that she’s calling a snow day. Forget the fact that it’s November and it never snows in Star City, she’s calling a snow day. The three of them are staying in bed all day and watching movies. They’ve earned it. 

She has just enough energy to pull her phone out of her pocket and blindly dial Anna to inform her that she won’t be making it in today and that she needs to call the girls in sick to school. Then she falls asleep. 

When she wakes up an hour or so later, it’s to Grace shaking her. 

“Mom, we’re late,” Grace says. 

“No we’re not,” she responds without even opening her eyes. “I called us into school.” 

“Why?” 

“We’re taking a personal day,” she says. 

“Really? You don’t have to work?” Grace asks. 

“Not today,” she says and scoots over in the bed to make room for her daughter. “Come cuddle with me.” 

Grace crawls into bed and snuggles up, resting her head on Felicity’s chest and rubbing her cold feet against her shins. Grace and Oliver, with their cold feet. She doesn’t understand how two people can always be so cold, all the time. 

“I thought you said that school is important so our brains can grow,” Grace says. 

“School is important,” she says, running her hands through Grace’s blonde curls the way that she always likes. “But so is family. And I say we could use a little more of that, don’t you?” 

“Yeah,” Grace says. “Is Dad coming?” 

“Your dad has to work,” Felicity says, wondering where all of this is suddenly coming from. 

It’s been 5 years since they got divorced, and while there have been moments where the girls have asked for Oliver when they are with her and vice versa, they have mostly adjusted remarkably well to the separation. They’ve always done their best to make the situation as normal for Grace and Ella as they can. So she’s not sure exactly why Grace is suddenly so upset over the divorce. 

“Okay,” she says, sounding disappointed. 

“You know, it’s been just us girls here for a long time,” Felicity says. “I didn’t know it bothered you so much.” 

Grace just shrugs, but Felicity can tell that there’s more behind it. A mother always knows and her children are about as good at hiding things as Oliver was at making up excuses. 

“Talk to me,” Felicity says. 

“Jillian Bowen said that parents only get divorced when they don’t want to be a mom or dad anymore,” Grace says, and Felicity can hear the way she’s holding back tears. 

“Well I wouldn’t exactly call any of the Bowens a beacon of truth,” Felicity says, unable to hold back her negative reaction. 

She can’t stand the Bowens or their children. Not since Ashley Bowen had brought her children to one of Oliver’s official Children’s Day Events and the Bowen kids had called Grace names and made her cry. 

“Then Hannah Archibald said that she doesn’t see her dad anymore because her mom got married and she got a new dad,” she says, and now she can definitely hear the tears. 

Felicity instantly feels guilty. Nothing is worse than when your child is crying. When your child is crying because of something you’ve done? It’s absolute hell. 

“Oh Love, you know that isn’t going to happen,” Felicity says, rubbing her back. “I’m sorry that you heard me talking to your grandma about a date. I promise you, I’m not getting married. And even if I was, it wouldn’t ever mean you wouldn’t see your dad. I will always be your mom and Oliver will always be your dad. Nothing will change that.” 

Grace sighs deeply, but has at least stopped crying, which she counts as a win. 

“I love you more than anything in the whole world,” Felicity says. “And so does your dad.” 

“Why did you and Dad get a divorce?” Grace asks. 

The answer to that is incredibly complicated and not a story she thinks her daughter needs to hear. Still, she’s clearly upset about it and Felicity remembers what it’s like when you’re young and your parents won’t tell you anything. She remembers all the questions she had for her mom when she was little about where her dad had gone and why they had to move away. She wishes her mother hadn’t waited so long to tell her the truth. 

Grace deserves to know what happened. At least a kid-friendly version of what happened. 

“Do you remember when your dad and I went away for awhile and you had to stay with your Aunt Thea?” Felicity asks. 

She knows that Grace has some vague memories of what happened back then at least, because she’ll catch her remembering things that she did with Thea while they were being held captive. Every once in awhile, Grace will see a picture of herself when she was younger and tell Felicity things like, ‘That’s when Aunt Thea took us to the zoo on Christmas ‘cause you and Daddy weren’t home.’

“When those bad men came and hurt Grandma and took you?” Grace asks. 

And yeah, knowing that Grace remembers the little things from those 13 weeks away — like sleepovers at Uncle Digg’s and late night ice cream parties — and knowing that Grace still remembers the awful day that Felicity was taken? Two totally different things. 

“Yeah,” she says, trying to focus on the task at hand and not get lost in a sea of memories and regret. 

Grace nods. She can feel it more than she can see it. 

“Sometimes, when bad stuff like that happens to us, it hurts us and makes us sad,” Felicity explains. 

“You cried when you came home. A lot.” 

“I’m surprised you remember all that,” Felicity says. “You weren’t that old.” 

Grace shrugs. 

“Well, I was having a really hard time and I couldn’t love your dad like I should,” she says. 

“You didn’t love Dad?” Grace asks. 

“I did love your dad. He tried really hard to make me feel better, but I was just too sad,” she says, hoping that Grace will understand that the divorce had nothing to do with love or her not wanting her family. 

“You know, when you love people, you need to give love to them, you can’t just take it. Right?” Felicity asks. When Grace nods, she continues. “I couldn’t love your dad the way that he deserved to be loved. I was just too sad.” 

Grace sits up on the bed and looks at Felicity. Her eyes studying her carefully. For what, exactly? She’s not sure. 

“Are you still sad?” Grace asks. 

She thinks about that answer. Her immediate response is yes. Of course she’s sad. She may always be sad. But that’s not what she wants to tell her daughter. And the truth of the matter is that she’s _not_ always sad. There are times in the day where the weight that drags her down is almost nonexistent. Where she can almost believe that the pain is fading. 

“Sometimes,” she answers truthfully. 

“Oh,” Grace says, looking down at her hands, picking at her chipping nail polish. “You know, when I’m sad, I tell dad and he makes me feel better.” 

“He’s a good dad,” she says with a small smile. 

“Maybe you could tell him and he could make you better?” 

“I don’t think it’s that easy with adults,” she says. “I wish it was.” 

“Yeah,” Grace says, though Felicity’s positive that she doesn’t understand the difference. “Are we ever going to be a family again?” 

“Woah, hey,” she reaches out and grabs Grace’s hands, stopping her from fidgeting nervously. “Look at me. We are a family _now_. It’s a little different from before, and it might not look like some of your friend’s families, but it’s still good. Right?” 

“I guess,” Grace shrugs. 

And doesn’t that just stab her right through the heart. 

“Harper Grace, I need you to understand something,” Felicity says, feeling herself tearing up. “Your dad, Ella, and I? We are your family. Nothing, _nothing_ is going to change that. I don’t know what will happen with your dad and I in the future, but it doesn’t matter. You will always have a home here with me and a home with your dad. Nobody is going anywhere, and we don’t love you any less just because we are divorced. We love you so much. We would do anything for you. That’s what family is. We don’t need to be married for that.” 

“I know,” Grace says. 

“So why the long face?” 

“I just want you to be happy,” Grace says. 

Felicity hadn’t realized until now just how much her own depression and anxiety had been noticed. How much it had affected Grace. It’s unacceptable. She has to get better. If not for herself, then for her children. They don’t need to see her like this. 

She reaches out and pulls Grace back into her arms and squeezes her so tight that Grace laughs. 

“With you in my life, I will be.” 

****

**_2021_ **

_Felicity waits until she hears the lock slide into place and her captor’s footsteps echo down the hall. Once she's positive that she's alone, she gets to work. She's got about an hour before he comes back for her next check in. She slides off the bed and shuffles over to the dresser. While previously, all of the drawers had been locked, two days ago, she’d managed to jimmy them open._

_Inside, she’d found her salvation. To any ordinary person, it would have seemed like an average junk drawer. It had pens, sharpies, old batteries, random screws, power cords that went with nothing, a broken 1st generation iPod, headphones, electrical tape… But most importantly, it had an old disposable camera._

_A disposable camera with a high value capacitor in the flash._

_WIth it, she had everything she needed to make a powerful taser._

_She’s been at it for the last two days. The heart of the problem is that she is working with limited time between check-ins and limited mobility with her hands tied together. So far, all of her time had been spent just peeling back the plastic on an old power cord using a screw. What should have been a 5 minute job, took forever. Every time she would make progress, she would have to stop and clean up the plastic shavings on the floor so that her captor wouldn’t see them and think she was up to something. Then it would be meal time again and she’d have to stop._

_At the rate she’s going, it’s going to take weeks to finish._

_Still, it’s her best option._

_Oliver isn’t coming for her. It’s been 9 days and he’s not here. She knows that he is out there looking, but if he was going to find her, he would have already. It’s been 9 days._

_She knows this because it’s now the 3rd day of Hanukkah. The past two evenings, her captor has come in and lit a candle with her. When she questioned him about why The Final Order was killing Jews if he himself was Jewish, he’d remained silent._

_Often, he remains silent now. Ever since she’d nearly convinced him to let her call home and tell her family she was alright..._

_Ever since she’d had the phone in her hands and was about to call Oliver..._

_Ever since that other man came storming in and threw the phone at the wall..._

_Ever since the other man had thrown Felicity on the floor, kicked her repeatedly, and yelled, “No more talking.”_

_Now, the only time he talks to her is when he’s forcing food down her throat._

_She pulls out the stripped power cord and the screw again, and gets to work cutting the wire into two pieces. It’s difficult. More often than not, she ends up cutting herself more than the cord. But she’s determined to finish this part today._

_Felicity’s not planning on staying here a minute longer than she has to. She needs to get home. She misses Grace and Ella so much it hurts. She’s worried about them. She’s tried asking, but he won’t tell her what they’d done to her daughters. They won’t tell her if her mother had survived the stabbing._

_She misses Oliver. She’s never felt so alone or scared as she does now. She would give almost anything to have his loving arms around her. To hear him tell her that everything would be alright as he kisses her forehead._

_What if she never has that again? What if this bedroom is the last thing she knows?_

_Her vision starts to blur, and she realizes she’s crying. She hastily wipes her eyes and tries to calm herself down. If she’s going to get out of this alive, she needs to keep a level head. She needs to stay focused. She needs to hold onto the hope that she will get out of here alive. She will see her family again._

_Felicity pictures Oliver on their wedding day, the goofy smile he’d worn all day. She remembers Grace’s infectious giggle as she runs around the house early in the morning. She thinks of Ella’s wide eyes, staring up at her for the very first time, with so much love and admiration. That’s the family she is fighting for._

_Then she gets to work._

****

**2026**

“Damn it,” he hears Felicity cry out as he walks through the door of the lair. She’s clearly frustrated and he can hear her angry typing from here. 

“Did something happen?” he asks, rushing into the main room to look over her shoulder at her screen. 

She throws her arms up in the air and looks at him, annoyed. 

“No. Nothing’s happening. That’s the problem.” 

“You still can’t break through?” he asks, assuming she’s referring to the firewall that’s preventing her from finding out who is behind the bank account that’s been paying off terrorist organizations to kill masks. 

“No,” she groans. “And it’s been two weeks since we had anything substantial to go on with the Order and even _that_ was a trap.” 

“We’ll figure something out,” he says. “It’ll be okay.” 

“This isn’t okay, Oliver,” she says. “When? _When_ are we going to find something out? After somebody else dies?” 

“Nobody else is going to die,” he says. The whole point of them coming back to the team is so that they don’t have to watch anyone else die. That they can catch these guys before anything bad happens. Again. 

“You can’t know that,” she says. “For all we know they have somebody taking out Superman as we speak.” 

“Really? You think Superman is going to get killed? Cause I’m willing to bet he’s the last one standing,” he says. 

“The point is, we don’t know who’s doing this and we don’t know where the next attack is going to be. It’s my job to figure it out and I’m _failing_ ,” she says. 

Felicity takes her glasses off and rubs her temples. It kills him that she’s bearing so much of the responsibility for what’s happening when none of it is her fault. 

“You are _not_ failing,” he says, reaching out to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Do you remember how long it took us to take down H.I.V.E.? To figure out who was behind the Undertaking? To defeat Slade? These things take time.” 

Felicity sighs, but he can see that he’s getting through to her. 

“If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s always a clue,” he says. “There’s no such thing as a perfect crime. They’re are going to mess up eventually, and when they do, you’ll find it and we’ll take them out.”

“And in the meantime?” 

“In the meantime, there’s parent teacher conferences to worry about,” he says. 

She looks surprised and glances at the clock. “Shit, it’s 4pm already. We have to go.” 

He looks at her amused. She was the one who told him to come pick her up because she needed to take her car to the shop and didn’t want to pay for a rental. 

“Yeah, what did you think I was doing here?” he says with a laugh as he watches her scramble to grab her things and throw them into her purse. 

“I don’t know,” she says, waving him along as if he’s the one who made them late. 

Oliver laughs and follows after her. He’s not sure what she’s worried about. Their conference isn’t until 4:30pm and there’s no way it’s starting on time. He’d asked the secretary who had the 4pm slot when he’d called to schedule and it was the Bowens. 

Like _that_ was going to be a short meeting. Little Andrew Bowen may only be 5, but Oliver still considers him the devil incarnate. Has ever since he’d put gum in Ella’s hair back in preschool and refused to apologize. 

They both get into the car and Oliver heads towards the girl’s school. 

“John said he’d ask Lyla if ARGUS has anything,” he says as Felicity fiddles with the settings on his radio. “What are you doing?” 

“I’m fixing your stereo. Your balance is all off,” she says. “And I’ve already asked Lyla. ARGUS doesn’t have anything.” 

“My balance is just fine,” he says, playfully slapping her hands away. “You just want to mess with my presets.” 

“Like you listen to anything but talk radio these days, Grandpa,” Felicity teases him. 

“I’ll have you know I listen to music, too,” he protests. 

“What? Radio Disney?” Felicity laughs. “Doesn’t count.” 

“Half the time I’m driving is because the girls are in the car. Otherwise, I take the bike,” he says, defensively. 

The smile that takes over her face could rival the cheshire cat. 

“Oh my god…” 

“What?” he asks. 

“You _like_ Radio Disney, don’t you?” she asks. 

He doesn’t respond to that. What can he say, it’s not awful. It’s got kid friendly music, so he doesn’t have to worry about Ella or Grace running around the house singing songs about sex, drugs, or anything else that may be questionable. And… it’s not awful. 

“Do your constituents know that their _cool, badass_ mayor listens to Radio Disney?” she teases him. 

This is nice. This is what he misses most about Felicity. The carefree moments when they can just be. When they don’t have to worry about whatever drama is going on around them, and they can tease each other, laugh, and forget about the rest of the world. 

“My constituents appreciate the fact that I’m a loving father,” he says. “Thea says it helps my approval rating.” 

“Of course,” she says. “As does storming City Hall and punching out the people taking your employees hostage.” 

“I told them I take boxing lessons,” 

“The fact that more people don’t see through your bogus lies concerns me,” she says, mumbling something about energy drinks and syringes. 

Oliver can’t help but laugh at that. 

A few minutes later, he turns into the school parking lot at 4:25pm. He’s got a solid 5 minutes to spare before their first conference. Oliver looks at her pointedly. 

“You’re on time once in your life and you want a reward?” Felicity says. “No.” 

“I’m on time more often than not, ask Thea,” he argues. 

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” she says. 

They make their way inside and the secretary informs them that their meeting has been pushed back twenty minutes because the teacher was still meeting with the Bowens. 

“Shocker,” Felicity says under his breath and they both share a grin. If there’s anyone that hates the Bowens as much as Oliver does, it’s Felicity. 

They both take a seat at the chairs in the lobby and wait to be called back. 

“I forgot to ask you, do you mind picking the girls up from school tomorrow and keeping them for an hour or so? I’d ask my mom but they’re trying to take a long weekend to go see Sara.” 

“Of course, I’ll just have Maggie move some stuff around,” he says pulling out his phone to do just that. “What do you have going on?” 

The way she tenses momentarily doesn’t go unnoticed by him. He stops what he’s doing to look at her closely, trying to figure out what’s wrong. 

“There’s a doctor that I need to go see,” she says. 

“Is everything—” 

“A therapist,” she says before he can finish asking if she’s okay. 

And wow. That is the last thing he ever imagined coming from her. Back when they’d first returned home, the doctors that had checked them both out had tried to convince her to go to therapy, but she’d refused. He’d tried pushing the matter when it became apparent that she wasn’t going to be able to put what happened behind her, but she’d claimed that she couldn’t talk to a therapist. That even with the doctor-patient confidentially, there were too many secrets… She wouldn’t risk anyone finding out about her work with The Green Arrow. 

She must mistake his stunned silence for disapproval, because she immediately starts rambling. 

“I mean I know I can’t tell them everything, even with doctor-patient confidentiality,” she whispers, careful about being overheard by the nosey secretaries here. “But it’s not as if my kidnapping wasn’t national news, and even if I can’t tell them everything… I just think that maybe… Don’t you think? It’s probably stupid.” 

“No, no,” he says, reaching out to take her hands so that they’ll stop shaking. “It’s not stupid. I think it’s a great idea. I’m really proud of you.” 

“Really?” she says, biting her lip in that nervous way she often does. 

“Of course,” he says. “I hope that it helps you.” 

“Me, too.” she says, this time with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love! I'd love to hear what you think about the story so far and any theories you have about what's to come!


	9. Counting Bullets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity attempts to break free from her captors. Meanwhile, in 2026, Team Arrow uncover what the next major terrorist attack will be and are forced to call for reinforcements from an unlikely source.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks, as always to my beta/#1 cheerleader Emisfritish
> 
> Also- no matter how many times I recode this chapter, I can't get the final scene to be in italics to symbolize the past. I gave up.

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2021**

_Felicity stares down at the completed taser in awe. She’s actually done it. She’s built herself a high powered taser, and with it, her escape._

_It has taken her 9 days to do so. It’s taken her all of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. She promised herself when she was little and crying at every holiday for her father, that she would never miss an important event in her children’s lives, and now she’s missed two big holidays. It’s unacceptable. By her calculations, it’s been 16 days in this hellhole and she doesn’t intend to make it 17. She’ll be damned if she misses another night with her family._

_Today is the day. Today, she breaks out._

_She glances at the door and listens for any sign of life on the other side. She sighs in relief when she doesn't hear anything. From what she can gather, it’s been about a half-hour since her last check-in. Which means, in theory, she has another half-hour to break out of her zip-ties and get into position._

_She has plenty of time. In theory... It’s been several years since John trained her to do this, but it shouldn’t matter. She still remembers the basic steps._

_First, she uses her teeth to move the head of the zip tie into the correct position between her wrists. Once they are in place, she pulls on the end of the zip tie making it as tight as she possibly can. It hurts. The zip tie digs into her raw skin and she starts to bleed, but she can’t think about that right now. The pain will pass as soon as she can break free._

_She stands up and spreads out her elbows as wide as the zip tie will allow. She makes sure to line her forearms up with her hip bones the best that she can. The last thing that she needs to do is elbow herself in her already bruised stomach._

_Felicity takes a steadying breath. She’s suddenly more nervous than she’s ever been in her entire life. Her entire body is shaking. Once she does this, there is no going back._

_Once the ties are broken, she won’t have the option of waiting. If her captor sees her without her ties, he’ll know she’s planning to escape. As ready as she is to be home with her family, she’s never going to be ready to take on whatever it is she will find on the other side of that door._

_Suddenly, her entire plan seems ridiculous. Who does she think she is? What if there is more than just her captor in this awful place with her? What if they have guns? This plan could get her killed. She’s not Oliver. She can’t take on active shooters. She has very little training, and the training she has is all defensive..._

_She closes her eyes and pictures Grace and Ella._

_She has been desperate to get any information about how they are doing, but hasn’t been able to find out anything. Are they alright? Were they taken by The Final Order, too? Are they alone and scared, crying for their mother?_

_The thought alone causes a sob to nearly escape._

_No, she tells herself. Grace and Ella are fine. They are back in Star City with Oliver. She has to believe that is true. That she would know if something bad had happened to her girls._

_Her own mother used to talk about a ‘Mother’s Intuition.’ Back then, Felicity thought it was a load of crap. Something her mom made up to guilt her into confessing whatever wrong she’d committed that week. But now that Felicity is a mother herself, she has to believe it’s true._

_Grace and Ella are okay. Oliver would have seen to that much. In fact, that’s probably why he hasn’t been able to rescue her. They’d promised each other, that if it ever came down to choosing between themselves or the girls, the girls would win every time._

_It’s a calming thought. At least Grace and Ella have their father to look out for them. Oliver won’t let anything bad touch them._

_Still, her family needs her and she has to at least try to get out of here. She can’t afford not to. Eventually, her captor is going to tell her what The Order wants from her and after that, there’s very little promise of seeing the light of day. She’s seen his face. Kidnappers don’t typically let you see their face if they are planning on letting you live._

_Felicity takes several calming breaths, then she raises her arms up high and uses all of her power to pull straight down. As soon as her forearms meet her hips, the zip tie breaks open._

_Instantly, blood flows back into her hands and she feels like she’s being stabbed with a hundred needles. It hurts to move her fingers, but she doesn’t have time to rest. She grabs the screw she’s been using as scissors and bends over to reach the zip ties around her ankles._

_This part is more difficult to do with the awkward angle. It takes her a minute to maneuver herself around so that she can reach the locking bar. It also takes several attempts for her to be able to lift the locking bar with the screw, but finally she succeeds and is able to loosen the zip ties enough to pull her feet through._

_She’s free._

_Well, she’s at least no longer bound._

_Felicity grabs the disposable camera that she’s turned into a taser extremely carefully. The last thing she needs to do is accidentally shock herself._

_Moving towards the door, she tries to figure out the best place to stand in order to catch her captor by surprise. The man is huge and incredibly strong… possibly stronger than Oliver. The only way her plan is going to work, is if she can hit him with her taser before he notices what she’s doing._

_She changes her position a good ten times before she hears the telltale sound of the lock, signaling it’s time._

_Felicity holds her breath as the door swings open. The man barely steps into the room when she jams the camera into his neck and he instantly goes still and begins convulsing. He does not, however, go down like she thought he would._

_The man turns to look at her and she’s sure she looks every bit as surprised as he does. Except, he looks more than surprised, he looks livid. He moves like he’s about to reach for something, and she reacts on instinct alone. She pulls the taser back and jams it into his chest, right where his heart would be. He goes still once more, but still doesn’t go down._

_Felicity doesn’t have time to think. She acts on pure instinct. Her hands reach to the gun he wears on his belt. She pulls it out with one hand, the other still firmly holding the taser to his heart. She knows that the electrical charge of the taser will only last so long._

_She pulls the trigger, but the gun doesn’t fire._

_Turn off the safety, a voice that sounds suspiciously like John’s echoes in her mind._

_The man turns to her and laughs. He moves to grab at her, but she is able to step back out of his reach. She drops the taser and puts both hands on the gun, turning off the safety as she does._

_The man steps towards her, his face red with rage. Felicity pulls the trigger again, this time the gun goes off and the bullet goes right into the man’s arm._

_“Dumb bitch!” he yells, lunging at her._

_She moves across the room, jumping onto and over the bed to put some distance between them. When she points the gun at him again, she remembers something else from her trainings with John._

_Go for the headshot. Don’t take any chances. If it’s down to your life or somebody else, you go for a headshot._

_Felicity’s aim has never been great, but she knows she has to do her best. There are only so many chances she will get to take her kidnapper down before he gets his hands on her. She closes one eye, lines up her shot, and takes it._

****

**2026**

Oliver watches Roy and John spar, calling out suggestions from the sidelines as he puts ice on his knee. Felicity and John both gave him strict instructions to take it easy after a particularly bad run-in with The Final Order last night.

“Rotate your hips, Diggle!” he calls out, causing John to glare his way and get distracted just long enough for Roy to knock him off his feet. 

“You’re both getting old,” Roy says, with a triumphant smile. 

“That’s the first time you’ve ever gotten one over on me,” John says, clearly annoyed at losing. “Don’t get cocky.” 

“Hmm, I _like it_ when he’s cocky,” Thea says with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows that has Oliver groaning. 

“Thea, stop,” he complains. “I could have gone my entire life without hearing about my little sister’s sex life.” 

“Because I’ve never had to hear any innuendos with you two,” Thea says sarcastically, pointing a finger between Oliver and Felicity. 

Oliver glances over his shoulder at Felicity, who is so engrossed in whatever it is she’s doing on her computer, that she isn’t paying them any attention. 

“Yeah, well those days are long behind us now, aren’t they?” he mumbles, just loud enough for them to hear. 

They all send him a pitying look that does nothing but annoy him. He shouldn’t have said anything. The last thing he needs is any of them trying to play matchmaker again. He’s still not sure what it was that Thea said to Felicity last week that caused the two to argue and Felicity to storm out and not return for three days, but he knows it was about him. 

“Speedy, you’re up,” he says, trying to focus their attention off of him and back to their training session. 

“Oh no,” Felicity cries out. “No! No, no, no, no, no! Frack!” 

Oliver rushes over to her side, quickly followed by the others.

“What’s going on?” he asks, but is ignored as Felicity continues rambling to herself. 

“This can’t be right. Crap!” 

They all watch on, helpless, as Felicity goes back and forth between typing frantically on her keyboard and checking something on her tablet. 

“Felicity,” he says her name, trying to get her attention, but she’s too lost in her own world to respond. He shares a look with John, who just shrugs at him. John doesn’t know what to do either, but waits until she’s ready to explain what is going on. 

Felicity pulls up a file on Lucius Fox and grabs her phone, dialing his number. 

Lucius Fox… Oliver stares at the picture on the screen, trying to figure out where he knows the man from. He looks familiar, but he can’t place him. 

“Lucius? Hi, it’s Felicity Smoak from Palmer Tech… I’m doing much better than you will be in a second. Are you in your office?” Felicity says. 

He can’t hear the other end of the conversation, because she hasn’t put it on speaker, so he has to try and guess at what is happening. 

“Great! Are you alone?” she asks. “Perfect. If you look at your computer, I’ve taken control of your screen. On it, you’ll see intel that I need you to get to Mr. Wayne, like _yesterday_.” 

Mr. Wayne. As in, _Bruce_ Wayne.

Oliver glares at the screen. That’s where he knows Lucius Fox from. He’d met the man several times at various functions over the years. He is the CEO of Wayne Enterprises. _The_ Wayne Enterprises. 

Though he isn’t even sure what Felicity is talking to Lucius Fox about, he instantly doesn’t like it. 

“I think you and I both know why I’m asking you to give this _particular_ kind of intel to Mr. Wayne.” 

And there it is. Felicity keeps saying his name and it’s making Oliver want to put a hole in the wall. Thea must notice the way that he’s clenching and unclenching his fists, aching for a fight, because she sends him an amused smirk that says she sees right through him. 

“I guess that means Bruce and you never made up,” Thea whispers so that only they can hear. 

Oliver grunts. “Making up implies there was ever a relationship in the first place,” he says. “Why is Felicity involving him?” 

Thea shrugs, but doesn’t drop the amused look, which only makes him want to punch something that much harder. 

“You’ve got less than 24 hours before what looks to me like the plague hits your city… Thank you. I will also pass this information onto a Mr…” Felicity trails off while she types something quickly into the keyboard and another file suddenly pops up. This time for a man named James Gordon. “Gordon? Does that sound right?” she asks. 

He is debating the merits of flying to Gotham himself and personally informing Wayne that whatever it is Felicity is asking him to do, he can just stop. Oliver will take care of it. The last person he needs to owe anything to is Bruce Wayne. He’s debating if Maggie can justify the flight to Gotham as a business expense when he’s distracted by Digg moving over to one of their large screens. 

Oliver watches as he turns the screen on and starts flipping through Felicity’s research. He’s scrolling through everything quickly when he passes a couple of pictures that have them both gasping in shock. Each image is of a person covered in boils with blood coming out of their eyes and ears. If the people in the pictures aren’t dead, they look about 2 seconds from it. 

“What is that?” Thea asks, sounding as disgusted as he feels. 

“Research on an airborne contagion,” Digg says. “Which was apparently bought and developed by a group called The Battalion of Doom.” 

“Well that sounds pleasant,” Roy says. “Who names these groups anyway? The Final Order? The League of Assassins? The Battalion of Doom?” 

Oliver’s never heard of the group, but he’s been around long enough to understand the play. The Battalion of Doom is going to unleash the airborne contagion on Gotham, at which point, at least half of the city will die, if not more, most likely killing the Batman, Robin, and any other masks in the city. It’ll be Hong Kong all over again. 

“Good, so you guys are up to speed then,” Felicity says, tossing her phone on the desk and coming to stand by them. “We need to develop a vaccine and somehow get it to everyone in Star City in the event that Batman can’t stop this and it spreads.” 

“Let’s pretend for a minute we’re _not_ all up to speed,” Thea says at the same moment as Oliver says, “Batman?” 

“Yes, _Batman_ ,” she says, giving him an odd look, like he’s somehow the crazy one. “The vigilante of Gotham, who this attack is really targeted at.” 

“You wanted to give this information to Wayne,” he says, confused, not seeing how the two of them are connected.

“Otherwise known as _The Batman_?” she says, still looking at him like he’s lost his mind. 

“Bruce Wayne is _not_ Batman,” he says with a laugh. “No. Not in a million years. No. Impossible.” 

Felicity gives him a long look, opening and closing her mouth several times to say something, but ultimately decides against it.

“Okay,” she says, turning back to the group. “I just found out that The Battalion of Doom has just received their twelfth deposit from our Mystery Group of Horrors, meaning in less than 24 hours, Gotham is going to experience a terrorist attack. I pulled up everything I could on the group and uncovered this,” she says, pointing at the pictures on the screen. 

“This is not so creatively called Armageddon. It’s a virus that attacks the immune system. It’s been in development for several years and has been used before in a disturbing torture-execution on those who oppose The Battalion. Previously, the only way you could get it was through injection, but some genius recently made it airborne. Now, if it gets out, it will be virtually unstoppable and will likely spread beyond just Gotham.” 

“How do you cure it?” Roy asks. 

“That would be what I’m going to Palmer Tech to find out,” she says. “We don’t exactly specialize in this, but… I have some biomedical engineers who might be able to figure something out.” 

“Bruce Wayne is _not_ Batman,” Oliver says, baffled, still stuck on that revelation.

Why is nobody else arguing with Felicity on this one. Oliver has known Bruce Wayne for a long time, and he would _know_ if the man was Batman. He’s not. He can’t possibly be Batman. Batman has been a hero to Gotham. Bruce Wayne is a lot of things, but hero is not one of them. 

“Because a billionaire could never become a vigilante,” John says, giving him a pointed look. 

Oliver rolls his eyes. 

“Wayne is the most vain person I’ve ever met. He’s a womanizing, arrogant, selfish, rich kid who has never _once_ demonstrated an ounce of responsibility in his life,” he explains. “Nobody who’s ever met him would think he could possibly be Batman.” 

“Green Arrow,” Roy says through an obviously fake cough, while Thea and John try to contain their laughter. 

“What?” he asks, annoyed. 

“I’ve met him,” Felicity says, interrupting them. “And you’re right. He’s a complete womanizing asshole. But he’s also Batman. Now can we focus?” 

“What do you mean you’ve _met_ him?” he asks, feeling that old feeling of jealousy raise its ugly head. 

“Oliver—” she starts to say, but he knows that she’s going to try and change the subject, so he cuts her off. 

“When?” 

“Why is this important?” she asks. 

“Because I _know_ Wayne and if he _met_ you, he _hit_ on you,” he says, barely managing to contain the primal growl that wants to escape at the thought of anyone so much as looking at Felicity, let alone someone like Wayne. “So I’m merely asking if he did it before or after he knew we were together.” 

Felicity sighs deeply and looks to the others for support, but they are all much too interested in hearing the rest of the story to give her any kind of back up. 

“After,” she answers reluctantly. 

“Damn, Blondie?” Roy says, whistling in amusement. “How many billionaires have you dated?” 

“After what? Bali? The engagement? The wedding? The kids?” 

Not that any of those answers would make him any less likely to murder Bruce Wayne in his sleep. 

“Why are you making this a big deal?” Felicity asks. 

“Oh my god, I hate him so much,” Oliver says to himself. Mentally, he’s already broken into Wayne Manor and shot an arrow right through Wayne’s cold, dead heart. 

“Because he asked me out when we were in Ko Pha-Ngan?” she asks. 

“ _That’s_ when he asked you out? On our honeymoon?” Oliver yells. 

This… _This_ is why Bruce Wayne cannot possibly be Batman. 

“Can we get back to work?” Felicity says, looking at him like he’s lost his mind. “We have less than 24 hours before Gotham turns into an episode of The Walking Dead.” 

“Fine, we should definitely get to work on some kind of inoculant, because there is no way that Wayne is going to save Gotham,” Oliver says. 

The rest of them roll their eyes at him, but agree. They need to get to work. 

An hour later, Oliver is at Palmer Tech with Felicity working on a crisis plan while she has her employees frantically searching for a solution to protect against Armageddon — and are they really calling it that? Because it sounds like something Cisco made up. 

Cisco… He works at Star Labs. Star Labs was known for it’s medical advances before the particle accelerator exploded. Caitlin Snow had been the one to create the cure for Mirakuru. She could come up with a cure for this, right? 

“Shouldn’t we be calling Caitlin for help?” he asks. 

“Central City has been taken over by metas in Barry’s absence,” she explains. “I can barely get anyone there on the phone for 5 seconds, let alone get help with anything. I’ve already called everyone I can on this.” 

“You mean you called Wayne Enterprises,” he says. 

“Yes,” Felicity says, giving him a warning look. “We don’t have much time. I suggest you stop obsessing over whatever problem you have with Bruce Wayne and focus.” 

Focus? He’s _been_ focused. He’s focusing so much his eyes are going cross-eyed. This is the part about being mayor that Oliver hates the most. While Thea, Roy, and Digg are out working the streets to track down new leads on The Final Order, Oliver’s been benched. His responsibilities as the mayor dictate that he has a plan in place should this virus get out of control and spread to Star City. His city is counting on Mayor Queen to protect them just as much as, if not more than, they count on the Green Arrow. 

“We could just block all incoming flights and trains from Gotham,” Oliver says, looking up hopefully. If he can come up with a plan quick enough, maybe there was still time to suit up and join the others out in the field. 

“You’d have to block all buses and cars, too. There’s no way to do that without some kind of explanation and then causing a widespread panic… For all we know, it won’t be an issue. Let’s just cross our fingers that Bruce stops the Battalion of Doom and Lucius is able to come up with a vaccine on his own.” 

“It’s Bruce now?” Oliver asks, unable to stop himself from rolling his eyes. “I still can’t believe he hit on you on our honeymoon and you didn’t even tell me.”

“Oliver,” Felicity says his name, clearly annoyed. She looks up at him and must see something in his eyes, because she lets out a resigned sigh and puts down her tablet, effectively stopping her work. 

“What happened with Bruce was nothing. He asked me out, I told him I was happily married. That is the only time we’ve ever talked outside of random business meetings where he’s shown up,” she says. 

“I don’t like him,” he says. 

He realizes that by now, he just sounds petulant, but he doesn’t care. He’s never gotten along with Bruce Wayne, even when his parents would try to force them into playdates. Then once they became teenagers, Wayne made it his personal mission to steal every girl that Oliver looked at. The fact that he succeeded so often when they didn’t even live in the same city? It was infuriating. 

What’s worse, is that before he and Laurel started dating, he used to have to listen to her talk about how great Wayne was. How he was so sweet and kindhearted. How _different_ Wayne was from his public persona. And Wayne? He knew exactly what he was doing. 

Suffice it to say, Oliver will never like Wayne. So hearing about how the man had hit on Felicity on their honeymoon pisses him off. But more so, hearing that Bruce Wayne is the masked vigilante of Gotham? That’s _Oliver’s _thing. Oliver earned the title of Green Arrow through 5 long years of absolute hell. He didn’t just wake up one day and decide to play superhero.__

__“I know we haven’t talked about _us_ that much,” she says somberly. “There’s been too much else going on.” _ _

__“It’s fine,” he says, quickly._ _

__He doesn’t want to get into it right now when he knows that she’s only going to tell him that she still needs space. He’s trying his damndest to give her the space and time she needs to heal, but it’s been hard. He’s not going to lie. It’s been difficult to see her everyday and work together again like they used to and not remember all the reasons that he fell in love with her the first time._ _

__It’s been hard to keep himself from kissing her before leaving on a mission. To keep from holding her close when he returns from each mission safely. He can still feel her lips against his from the kiss they’d shared on his rooftop and that had been weeks ago._ _

__So it’s fine. They really don’t have to talk about their relationship right now. In fact, it’s probably best if they don’t. Not while he still needs to be able to focus on the task at hand._ _

__“It’s clearly not or you wouldn’t be getting so jealous right now,” she says. “I promise that you have nothing to worry about. With him or with anyone else.”_ _

__He wants to be comforted by her words, but he isn’t._ _

__He’s brought back to a few weeks ago when she admitted to starting therapy to deal with her trauma. He’s brought back to a month ago when he discovered that Palmer Tech was developing a fusion reactor like it isn’t the thing that got them kidnapped in the first place. He’s brought back to her joining the new Team Arrow without even batting an eye. He’s brought back to finding out that she was dating again._ _

__When he looks at Felicity, he sees a woman who’s healing from the terrible things that have happened to her. She’s taking steps towards putting everything behind her again. She is doing things she swore she never would do again — joining the team, working on potentially dangerous technology, dating…_ _

__She’s doing everything except let _him_ in again. _ _

__So how is he really supposed to believe her when she says that he has nothing to worry about? All he ever does anymore is worry over what is happening between them and what it means._ _

__“Is that really true, though?” he asks quietly, not even sure if he wants her to hear him or not. He’d promised her space and time, and bringing this up isn’t going to give her either._ _

__“What do you mean?” she asks._ _

__He takes a deep breath, and decides that this is it. They are going to have this conversation. Whether it’s a good idea or not._ _

__“I mean, I know you’ve been dating. And then finding out that you’ve been developing a fusion reactor at Palmer Tech… It just seems like all of the reasons you’ve given me for why we aren’t together anymore, aren’t reasons anymore. So I’m left thinking that you’re not being completely honest with me,” he says it all in one breathe while barely looking at her, knowing if he does, he may not get it all out._ _

__When he does finally look up at her, she’s shaking her head, but isn’t saying anything. _Felicity Smoak_ of all people isn’t saying anything. Which only leads him to believe that whatever it is she has to say, isn’t something he wants to hear. _ _

__“If it’s me that you don’t want, just tell me,” he says, hating how much it sounds like a plea. “Don’t give me an excuse to try and soften the blow, because all it does is give me false hope.”_ _

__“That’s not it,” she says, her voice barely a whisper as she moves to take a seat on the couch in her office._ _

__“Then what is it?” he asks, as kindly as he can, because the last thing he wants is to push her away. He just wants an answer. He feels like every conversation they have ends up right in the same place. All roads lead them back here and he just wants to understand._ _

__He watches her turn sideways and pull her legs up onto the couch, resting her arms against the back to create a pillow for her head. She looks so small this way. Lost. It makes him wish that he hadn’t said anything._ _

__It’s so easy to forget just how much she went through in her 13 weeks being held captive. He’s said it before and he’ll say it again, Felicity is the strongest person he knows. When she’s talking the team through a mission, or ordering around her employees on the phone, she’s the strong, confident woman he fell in love with. The one who stands up to people like Ra’s al-Ghul despite the fact that they could kill her before she could even blink. She’s made of steel, and so it’s easy to forget that her scars haven’t healed._ _

__But this right here? The woman before him now, who’s looking at him, pleading with him to understand? It’s the same woman who cried on his rooftop because the guilt she felt was too strong to try and confront._ _

__“I don’t know,” she whispers, like she’s ashamed to admit it._ _

__“You’re dating again?” he asks, and immediately regrets it. It makes him sound petty, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s honestly the last of his concerns. The first of which is honestly how she is able to work on a fusion reactor without being triggered._ _

__“My mom thought it might be easier with someone I didn’t have a history with,” she admits. “It’s not.”_ _

__He nods, because he can understand that much, at least._ _

__He hasn’t been with anyone since Felicity. Not now. Not even back during their first breakup when she’d ended their engagement. Ever since he realized he was in love with Felicity Smoak, he hasn’t even bothered looking at other women. But before Felicity… He’s certainly fell into bed with plenty of women because it was easier to be with a stranger than somebody who knew everything about him. Somebody who could list his every sin..._ _

__“I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t trust myself with you,” she says. He can see her hand move towards his own, but she pulls it back once she realizes what she’s doing._ _

__“You know that the likelihood of us ending up in that situation ever again is incredibly small right?” he asks._ _

__“It’s cute that you think the impossible doesn’t happen to us all the time,” she says with a sad smile. “Do you know the likelihood of a boat capsizing and getting stranded on an island? Or of getting stabbed in the chest, pushed off a cliff, and surviving? How about getting kidnapped twice by two different terrorist organizations?”_ _

__“Two?” he asks, confused._ _

__“Cooper,” she says._ _

__“Right,” he says. “That was forever ago.”_ _

__He’d completely forgotten about the time she and her mother were kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend in an attempt to steal from the US Treasury. Which is a shame, because few things were as amusing as watching Felicity pistol whip somebody._ _

__“I _wish_ I was ready, Oliver,” she says, her voice pleading with him to understand. “I do. But your life is not something that I’m willing to risk.” _ _

__“What if I’m willing to risk it?” he says, causing her to glare at him._ _

__“I thought you of all people would understand,” Felicity says. “I can’t be the one that brings death and destruction into your life. You’ve had enough pain to last several lifetimes and you’re finally in a good place. I can’t be the cause of you losing that.”_ _

__“I understand where you’re coming from. But, Felicity, you already _are_ the cause of me losing that,” he says. He doesn’t want to hurt her, but it’s important for her to realize it. “You were a big part of the reason I survived any of the trauma that happened to me. You are the reason I kept fighting for so long when all I wanted to do was give up. And then you walked away and I haven’t been the same since. So if you’re staying away to protect me, please don’t.” _ _

__“Oliver,” she says his name with tears in her eyes._ _

__He wants to cry. He needs her so desperately that it hurts. He’s been trying to make do with whatever she’s willing to give him, but it’s just not enough. With every smile she sends his way, every conversation they have, every look… He just wants to pull her close and never let her go. It’s not enough._ _

__“I need you,” he whispers, knowing he shouldn’t, but he can’t help himself._ _

__“You’re doing fine without me,” Felicity says, though there’s no conviction behind it._ _

__“I might look like I’m _fine_ ,” Oliver says. “But I’m not. The only reason I’ve kept my head above water these last several years is because I didn’t have another option. The girls needed me to be okay. They needed somebody to be okay…” _ _

__“You don’t need to tell me about what a horrible mother I’ve been, thanks,” she says with a humorless laugh._ _

__“Can you stop doing that?” he asks, annoyed. “Can you stop assuming the worst with everything I say. You have not been a horrible mother.”_ _

__“I'm sorry,” she says, picking at a loose thread on one of the throw pillows. “I don't know why I do that.”_ _

__Oliver knows her well enough to believe her when she says she doesn’t understand why she gets so defensive with him. Why she’s always so quick to anger. But he also knows her well enough to understand her reasons why even when she can’t._ _

__She is quick to assume because she already assumes the worst about herself. She’s quick to anger because she’s already so angry at herself. And she does all of it to him because she’s waiting for him to determine that she’s not worth it and walk away._ _

__It’s always easier to be the one breaking than to be the one left broken._ _

__The problem is, that Oliver has no intention of walking away from her. He never has._ _

__“You’re waiting for me to leave,” he says. “But if you want me to go, you’re going to need to tell me you don’t love me. Because that’s the only thing that will ever make me stop fighting for you. Fighting for _us_.” _ _

__Oliver watches as Felicity’s bottom lip starts to tremble. She buries her head in her arms, so that he can’t see her face, but he can see that she is taking deep breaths. She’s trying to stop herself from crying. He’s pushed her too far._ _

__Oliver scoots closer to her on the couch and reaches out a to put a hand on her back, rubbing it in what he hopes is a soothing manner. He considers it a victory when she doesn’t shrug him off. He never expects Felicity to curl into his arms, but she does. He wraps both arms around her and holds her tightly. He can feel how badly she is shaking, trying to contain her sobs._ _

__As her hands grip at the back of his shirt tightly, he can’t help but lower his head to rest against hers. Her hair still smells like lavender. It brings him back to a happier time. A time when they weren’t shattered with grief. A time when the most difficult conversations between them were over who was going to pick up diapers on the way home, how many shampoo bottles did Felicity really need in the shower, and what movie were they going to watch on their night off._ _

__He would give anything for the domestic bliss that they used to share. And the thing is… He knows she would give anything for it back, too. That’s the most frustrating part of all of this._ _

__“My therapist asked me what it is that I want,” she whispers into his chest, not looking up at him. “I told her that I want to be the person I was before I was taken.”_ _

__That’s what he wants for her, too. More than anything. He wants for her to be happy again and to be able to move past what happened to her. To be free of the grief and guilt that she’s been living under for the last 5 years._ _

__“I _am_ fighting,” she says, pulling out of his arms to look him in the eyes. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but I am. I’m trying.” _ _

__“Felicity,” he says, unable to come up with the right words to say._ _

__There’s so much that he wants to tell her. He wants to tell her that he knows what she’s going through. That he understands what it feels like to be buried under the weight of the past, of his own actions. His first few years after Lian Yu, he, too, felt like he was drowning. He wants to tell her that she’ll get through it, just like he did. Tell her that she can lean on him… but nothing he could say seems like enough._ _

__“I could help you find her again,” he ends up saying._ _

__Felicity puts a hand on his cheek and shakes her head sadly._ _

__Is that such a crazy idea? That he may want to help her make a difficult decision? That he might be a person she turns to in a moment of need? He, more than anyone, understands making difficult decisions for the greater good. Felicity working on a fusion reactor is certainly that._ _

__“You can fix a lot of things, Oliver. But you can’t fix me,” she says._ _

__“I don’t think you’re as broken as you think you are,” he tells her. “Not anymore, at least.”_ _

__“Maybe I’m just getting better at hiding it,” she says with a self-deprecating laugh._ _

__He shakes his head._ _

__“No,” Oliver says. “If you were still so broken, you wouldn’t have agreed to build the fusion reactor. Not after everything...”_ _

__“Curtis made me,” she says, dropping her hand from his face and wrapping her arms around herself. “I didn’t want to.”_ _

__He doesn’t understand._ _

__“When the initial proposal first came across my desk last year, I denied it,” she explains. “I didn’t even want them to do the research, much less develop it. But then Curtis told me off. He informed me that it wasn’t fair to make business decisions based on personal feelings, especially when the research I denied could help so many people.”_ _

__“Did Curtis know why you said no?” he asks, because he’s kind of surprised. Curtis has always been a big supporter of Felicity and has stood beside her through everything._ _

__Felicity nods. “He’s known everything since I got back. That’s why he’s never tried to push us back together.”_ _

__“I’m still not sure I understand,” he admits. “Why can you find a way to go back to everything else, when people tell you it’s time, but not me?”_ _

__Felicity doesn’t answer right away. He can tell that even she isn’t entirely sure of the answer to that question._ _

__“I’m busy holding myself together with tape and glue,” Felicity says, and is pretty sure that she’s quoting one of her shows to him, because it sounds vaguely familiar, but he doesn’t remember what it’s from. He wonders if he’s supposed to. If she expects him to._ _

__“You are a good man and I love you,” she continues. “But you deserve more than just tape and glue. Our girls deserve more than tape and glue. And until I figure out a way to do that — _If_ I ever figure out a way — I can’t try and fix this, too. Not while I’m still busy with the tape… and the glue…”_ _

__The fact that she’s so far past rock bottom that she isn’t even sure if finding her footing again is possible, makes him ache. He’s been there. God has he been there before, so he knows that him telling her she’ll figure it out won’t do any good. She has to believe it herself._ _

__Oliver gives her a kiss on the forehead to let her know that he understands. He doesn’t linger, no matter how much he wants to. She still needs time and space. He knew that before even starting this conversation, so he feels guilty that he ever brought it up in the first place._ _

__“We should get back to work,” he says, giving her permission to end a conversation that is clearly difficult for her to have._ _

__“Yeah,” she says, but doesn’t move, so neither does he._ _

__Oliver doesn’t miss the way that her eyes linger on his lips as she licks her own. He wonders if she's thinking about the last kiss they shared on the rooftop. The kiss that happened after an emotional talk, not unlike the one they just shared._ _

__“Felicity?” he says her name, not yet sure what it is he's asking for._ _

__“I’m so _not_ going to kiss you, if that’s what you’re wondering,” she says, convincing absolutely nobody. _ _

__“Mmmhmm. I’m not going to kiss you either,” he says, amused._ _

__“You can just get that thought out of your mind, Oliver Queen,” she says._ _

__“It wasn't in my mind, til you put it there,” he says with a laugh._ _

__“Well you can just put it right back out of your mind, because it’s not happening,” she says._ _

__He’s sure that he could push the matter. Her resolve appears to be paper thin, but he doesn’t. They both deserve better than stolen moments._ _

__“Felicity?” Oliver says, waiting for her to hum in response, so that he knows he has her full attention. Once he does, he leans in close to whisper right into her ear._ _

__“When we do kiss again, and rest assured it _will_ happen, it’s not going to be a quick moment of weakness on a couch in your office. It’s going to be long… passionate… and a promise,” he says slowly, loving the way that it makes her shiver. “A promise of so much more.... So think about _that_ when you’re in therapy. Remember what you’re fighting for.”_ _

__Felicity squeaks as she pulls away. Her face is flush and he can see a fire in her eyes that he hasn’t seen in years. It reminds him that somewhere in there is still the woman he fell in love with. And one day, maybe not today, but one day soon, he’ll see her again._ _

__He walks back over to the conference table where he’d been working earlier._ _

__“Oliver?” Felicity says, slowly standing up from her spot on the couch._ _

__“Yeah?”_ _

__“For the record, I’ve always thought the Green Arrow is much cooler than Batman,” she says. He recognizes her statement for what it is. An attempt to get back to the lighter tone they’ve shared for the past few weeks._ _

__“Well, yeah. Obviously,” he says, with a laugh. And with that, they find themselves settling back into their new normal. Working on the case at hand while engaging in friendly banter, like they aren’t separated by a sea of grief, insecurity, and suffocating guilt._ _

__****_ _

__**2021** _ _

___“I distinctly remember somebody telling me that I couldn’t bring an infant Sara into the lair because he wasn’t comfortable with her there,” John says, sending a pointed look towards Grace, who is currently doing cartwheels around Ella, over on the mats._ _ _

___“I didn’t have another option,” Oliver says, through gritted teeth._ _ _

___He hates the idea of the girls down here. He really does. But it’s much better than the alternative, which is to hire a random babysitter to watch them. Somebody untrained to take on a threat if they should be attacked again._ _ _

___So yes. He’s brought Grace and Ella into work with him. It’s like ‘Bring Your Daughter to Work Day’ only with vigilantees. And weapons. A whole lot of weapons._ _ _

___Oliver’s eyes follow Grace, making sure she’s still following the rules and not touching anything. She’s not._ _ _

___John raises his eyebrows at him, waiting for further explanation._ _ _

___“Donna’s still in the hospital — which means Lance is still spending every minute at the hospital — and Thea’s tracking down Merlyn to see if he has any idea where we can look for Felicity.”_ _ _

___“She’s tracking down Merlyn? Are we sure that’s wise after everything that happened with Laurel?” John asks._ _ _

___“It’s been 16 days,” Oliver says, surprised he even has to ask._ _ _

___Of course including Merlyn isn’t wise. But he’s also desperate enough to try. He’s been desperate from the moment he found out that Felicity had been taken._ _ _

___John nods his agreement, and Oliver breathes a sigh of relief that he won’t have to try and explain himself or his actions. He’s not sure if anyone is as desperate to find Felicity as he is, but John certainly comes close. Felicity is like a little sister to him. John has always been protective of her._ _ _

___“I can have Lyla stop by and get the girls on her way home,” he says. “Sara would be happy to have somebody to play with.”_ _ _

___“That’d be great,” Oliver says. “I just can’t… I don’t trust them with just anyone anymore.”_ _ _

___“I understand,” John says, hearing what Oliver isn’t saying._ _ _

___That he can’t afford to lose his daughters. Not now. Not ever. The possibility of losing Felicity is already more than he can handle._ _ _

___“So what have we got?” Oliver asks, focusing on the mission at hand._ _ _

___John had called him down here in order to discuss what he’s been able to pull up on The Final Order._ _ _

___“Unfortunately, nothing good,” John says, quietly so that Grace won’t overhear him. He pulls up a screen on Felicity’s computers. “The Order isn’t slowly down anytime soon. There have been at least 4 more murders linked to them in the last week.”_ _ _

___Oliver sucks in a breath, and tries not to think about Felicity…_ _ _

___“She’s not dead,” John says, putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “All of the murders happened within 24 hours of the people being kidnapped from their home. They want Felicity for something. They aren’t going to kill her.”_ _ _

___“Not until they get what they want,” Oliver says, feeling himself start to panic. “Then what?”_ _ _

___“We’ll find her before then,” John says. “We just have to keep calm and keep looking. It won’t do her any good if we start panicking.”_ _ _

___“Daddy!” Grace calls out to him. “Can I shoot an arrow?”_ _ _

___“No!” he and John both say at the same time._ _ _

___Oliver’s eyes darting over to her to make sure that she’s stayed on the mats like he told her to and hasn’t wandered off._ _ _

___She has, thankfully, but that doesn’t mean she’ll stay there. He follows her gaze over to where it’s fixed on his bow._ _ _

___“Jus’ one?” she asks, hopefully, holding up her finger._ _ _

___“Not even one,” Oliver answers, shaking his head. “That’s not a toy. It’s for Daddy, only.”_ _ _

___“But you taught me how ta’ shoot it,” Grace says, stomping her foot in defiance._ _ _

___“Yes, with a toy. What we have at home is a toy. This is not a toy,” he says, giving her a stern look. “You need to stay on the mats and not touch anything, like I told you.”_ _ _

___“Can I touch it a little?” she asks, holding her thumb and pointer finger just a little bit apart to demonstrate for him._ _ _

___“No,” he says. “Why don’t you play with some of the toys that we brought?”_ _ _

___Grace rolls her eyes and sighs in annoyance, reminding him so much of Felicity that it hurts._ _ _

___“Mommy’d let me touch it a little,” she grumbles, sitting down next to Ella, who’s still snoozing away in her carseat._ _ _

___Oliver is about to respond when John holds out his hand to stop him._ _ _

___“Just let it go, man,” John says. “She’s acting out ‘cause Felicity’s not here. Sara does the same thing when Lyla is away on business.”_ _ _

___Oliver doesn’t state the obvious. He doesn’t bring up that Felicity’s not away on business. That she’s been kidnapped and for all they know is being tortured right now. It won’t do anything but get them both worked up and John is right. They need to focus on the mission at hand and stay calm. Panicking will get them nowhere._ _ _

___“Do we have any idea how they are picking their victims apart from the obvious?”_ _ _

___“You mean apart from Jewish? I’m running a program to see if we can come up with a pattern, but it might take me awhile.”_ _ _

___John doesn’t say it. He doesn’t have to. It’s going to take him awhile because he’s not Felicity. Running the computers isn’t his thing. If Felicity were here, they wouldn’t have to wait for an answer, they’d already have it._ _ _

___“Well, try your best,” Oliver says, resigned._ _ _

___Oliver’s phone rings in his pocket. He’s sure that it’s Maggie again. His poor assistant has taken on a lot of extra work these last few weeks trying to take care of all of Oliver’s mayoral duties on her own while he focuses his attention on finding his wife. When this is all over, he is going to have to give her a nice bonus and a long, paid-for vacation._ _ _

___He pulls his phone out of his pocket and is surprised to see an unlisted number calling him._ _ _

___John looks over his shoulder and frowns._ _ _

___“Ransom call?” he asks._ _ _

___The words jolt him into action._ _ _

___“Hello?” he answers, trying his best to sound casual while inside he’s caught between feeling suspicious, anxious, excited, and terrified._ _ _

___“Oliver!”_ _ _

___The sound of Felicity’s voice has his gasping in relief. She’s alive. Thank god, she’s alive._ _ _

___“Oliver, I killed him,” Felicity says, her voice frantic. She’s nearly hysterical._ _ _

___“Killed who?” he asks, his heart caught in his throat. “Felicity, where are you? Are you hurt? What happened?”_ _ _

___At the sound of Felicity’s name, John turns back to the computers and starts running a trace on the call. Oliver turns the phone on speaker so that John can help him listen. He doesn’t want to miss anything important and he has no idea how long she’ll be able to stay on the phone._ _ _

___“My kidnapper, I killed him,” she says. He can hear her crying. “What do I do?”_ _ _

___“Mommy!” Grace calls, running towards Oliver the second she hears her mother’s voice._ _ _

___“Is that Grace?” Felicity says. “Oh thank god she’s with you. Is she okay? Is Ella okay? Are they hurt?”_ _ _

___“Mommy!” Grace cries, pulling on Oliver’s pants so that he’ll lift her up and she can be closer to the phone._ _ _

___“They are fine,” Oliver says into the phone, picking Grace up and putting her on his hip. “They are safe. Where are you?”_ _ _

___“Oh thank god,” she cries. “I didn’t know… He wouldn’t tell me anything.”_ _ _

___“Who is he?” John asks._ _ _

___Before Felicity can answer, Grace says, “Mommy, come home!”_ _ _

___“I’m trying, Baby Girl, I’m trying,” she says._ _ _

___“Grace, go play with your toys,” he says, putting her back down on the floor. “Daddy has to help Mommy, now. Okay?”_ _ _

___Grace looks from John to him. She must sense the seriousness of the moment, because she doesn’t argue with him. She simply nods her head._ _ _

___“I love you, Mommy,” she says._ _ _

___“I love you too, Sweetheart. So much,” Felicity cries._ _ _

___Grace walks back over to where she was playing before and Oliver focuses all of his attention on his wife._ _ _

___“Where are you?” he asks._ _ _

___“I don’t know. How is my mom? Tell me that she’s okay… That they didn’t kill her,” she says._ _ _

___“She’s fine. Everyone is fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” he says._ _ _

___“You have to come. I can’t do this,” she says._ _ _

___Few things in this world can truly make Oliver feel helpless. The sound of his wife crying and begging him to come and get her? It’s one of them._ _ _

___“I will, I promise. John is tracing the call and I’ll be there as soon as we know where you are. Are you safe? You said you killed your kidnapper? How?”_ _ _

___“I shot him,” she says. “I made a taser, but it didn’t take him out, so I grabbed his gun and I shot him.”_ _ _

___“Okay, okay. You’re okay,” he says, trying to calm her down._ _ _

___“What if somebody heard the gunshot and comes down to check on me?” she asks. “I have to get out of here.”_ _ _

___“She’s in Russia,” John says._ _ _

___Oliver moves to look at the screen. The program is still narrowing down the search to find an exact location, but sure enough, Felicity isn’t even in the country anymore. No wonder no one has been able to find her._ _ _

___“Felicity, I’m coming. I swear to god, I’m coming. But it’s going to take me awhile. Are you safe? Can you wait?”_ _ _

___“No,” she cries. “They are going to come. When he doesn’t check back in with them, they will come. They’re going to kill me. Why did I do this? I can’t do this. I’m not you.”_ _ _

___Oliver’s heart breaks as he listens to Felicity ramble on. She is the strongest person that he knows, but she’s not a soldier. She’s not a trained fighter. How is she supposed to protect herself from whoever is going to come after her next?_ _ _

___“I can’t take them on. I can barely throw a decent punch. These guys are huge! I can’t—”_ _ _

___“Yes, you can. You’re Felicity Smoak, you can do anything you set your mind to,” John says with complete conviction._ _ _

___John glares at him and that’s when Oliver realizes how panicked he is. That’s not what Felicity needs right now. She needs him to be calm, cool, and collected. She needs him to talk her through what to do so that she can actually escape this._ _ _

___Oliver takes a steadying breath, and forces himself to become the Green Arrow. He can’t afford to be the frantic husband right now. He needs to be the hero. He needs to focus on the mission at hand._ _ _

___And the mission is getting Felicity through this. She’s going to have to do this on her own, and to do so, she’s going to need to believe she can._ _ _

___“John is right. You can do this,” Oliver says. “You took on Slade Wilson. You can take on anybody. Now, tell me what you have to work with.”_ _ _

___“I’ve got a gun,” she says._ _ _

___Oliver takes a steadying breath. A gun is good. It’s not perfect… he knows she’s never had the best aim in the world but it’s something. The only problem is, if she has a gun, then it’s likely those men coming after her have guns, too._ _ _

___“What else do you have?” he asks._ _ _

___She doesn’t answer right away, but he can hear her moving, so he assumes she must be looking and gives her a second._ _ _

___“He’s got a taser, a_ real _one,” she says. “And there’s a syringe. It doesn’t say of what. Should I take it?”__ _

___He looks to John for advice, and John shakes his head no._ _ _

___“Leave the syringe. If you don’t know what it is, you don’t want to risk it,” Oliver says. “The last thing you want to do is rely on something knocking somebody out and it doesn’t.”_ _ _

___“Or accidentally stab yourself,” John says quietly, so that only he can hear it. Oliver decides not to pass that little tidbit along. Felicity will only start panicking more if she hears it._ _ _

___“Pocket the taser and keep holding the gun. Do you know how many rounds you have?”_ _ _

___“Why would I know that?” she asks._ _ _

___Oliver bites down the frustration he’s feeling at being so utterly helpless from his spot in the lair._ _ _

___“Take out the magazine and look,” he says, trying his best not to sound upset. It’s not her that he’s frustrated with. It’s whoever put them in this situation where he’s now having to talk his wife through how to effectively take out armed men on her own._ _ _

___“I don’t know how to do that,” she says. “You’re lucky I remembered how to turn the safety off before he killed me.”_ _ _

___Oliver sucks in a breath as he pictures Felicity standing in front of a man, pulling the trigger on a gun that won’t fire as the man tries to kill her. God, what if she can’t do this. What if she gets killed before he has a chance to see her again. This phone call could be the last time he talks to her._ _ _

___He’s not sure if he’ll survive if he has to listen to Felicity get shot over the phone._ _ _

___No. He knows he won’t survive._ _ _

___John must sense his distress, because he takes over._ _ _

___“Do you know what kind of gun you have?” John asks._ _ _

___“No, I don’t know what kind of gun it is,” she says, clearly annoyed. “You’re the one that handles all of that.”_ _ _

___“Felicity, I’m not asking for a brand name, I’m asking what type of gun. I’m assuming it’s a semi-automatic handgun?” John asks._ _ _

___“Oh… Yeah. It looks like the one you carry. Only it’s silver. Does that help? It’s like, silver and black?”_ _ _

___“The color isn’t really important,” John says. “Can you look at the grip?”_ _ _

___“The handle part? Yeah. What about it?” she asks._ _ _

___“There should be a button. It’s called the magazine release. Press it and the magazine will slide out.”_ _ _

___“Okay,” she says. “Got it. There’s some holes in the magazine. That’s where I look to see how many bullets there are, right?”_ _ _

___The computer beeps, letting them know that her location has been determined. Digg turns back to the computer as Oliver — finally composed again — takes back over directing Felicity._ _ _

___“Yes. How many do you have?” Oliver asks._ _ _

___“16,” she says. “It looks like one is missing. Which would make sense, considering… You know… Oh my god, I killed a man.”_ _ _

___“You killed a man that was going to kill you,” he says, trying to make her feel better, but the desperate chuckle she makes tells him that probably isn’t reassuring her at the moment._ _ _

___“Worry about it later,” he says, matter of fact. “You have to get out of there. Now, you have 17 bullets—”_ _ _

___“I have 16,” she corrects him._ _ _

___“You have one in the chamber, too,” he says. “It’s going to be important that you count those as you shoot. You don’t want to run out without realizing it. That’s how you get yourself killed.”_ _ _

___“I’m going to get myself killed,” she says._ _ _

___Oliver grunts in frustration at himself. He really should be better at this, but he’s not._ _ _

___“No you aren’t,” he says. “You’re going to count your bullets and you’ll be fine. You will get out of there alive, I will come and get you, and you’ll come home to your family.”_ _ _

___“Oliver, if something happens—”_ _ _

___“No,” he cuts her off. He doesn’t want to hear her try and tell him goodbye._ _ _

___“Okay, but if it does—”_ _ _

___“It won’t,” he says, adamantly. “You are coming home.”_ _ _

___“They’re coming,” she says, frantically. “I can hear footsteps above me. Oh god. I can’t take out more of them. I barely took out one man. I can’t do this. I can’t do this. I can’t do this—”_ _ _

___“Stop,” Oliver says. “You have two daughters at home that are counting on you. You can do this, because you don’t have another option.”_ _ _

___“Go for the headshot,” John says. “Don’t waste bullets on anything else. You can’t afford to be merciful right now.”_ _ _

___“Okay, okay, I’ve got this,” she says, trying to convince herself. “Oliver, I love you so much. Tell the girls I love them, too. And John—”_ _ _

___“Focus,” Oliver says, more harshly than he intends to, but he really can’t handle hearing her say goodbye and she really needs to focus on the task at hand. Dying is not an option._ _ _

___“Somebody’s coming downstairs,” she whispers._ _ _

___“Put the phone on speaker and in your pocket,” he instructs her. “Then you keep both hands on your gun and aim straight. Digg’s right. Go for the headshot.”_ _ _

___“Mrs. Queen, come out with your hands up and we won’t kill you,” Oliver hears a man calling out to her from a distance._ _ _

___“Oh god,” he hears Felicity whisper to herself._ _ _

___She probably didn’t intend for him to hear it, but he did. She sounds terrified. Oliver is so angry at the entire situation that he’s ready to flip the entire table over. The only thing that stops him from doing just that is Grace’s small, frightened voice._ _ _

___“Daddy?”_ _ _

___Oliver had completely forgotten about Grace being able to hear the entire conversation. Lord knows how much of the conversation she’s understood, but even if she hasn’t… He’s sure that she can feel the tension in the room and is reacting to at least that._ _ _

___He turns the phone off of speaker and puts it up to his ear before turning to his daughter._ _ _

___“It’s going to be okay,” he says, praying to god it’s not a promise that he has to break._ _ _

___Grace nods, but he can see her trembling. She’s petrified. Oliver knows the feeling. He feels like he can’t breathe._ _ _

___He waves her over to him as he listens carefully to the other end of the phone call. He can hear gunshots, but so far, he can also still hear Felicity’s surprised squeaks each time and her whispered counting as she counts down the number of bullets she has left. He knows she must be okay. She would cry out in pain if she got shot._ _ _

___Grace pulls at his pants and he lifts her into his arms and holds her close to him, silently praying to a god that he doesn’t believe in that Felicity makes it out of this alive._ _ _

___At that very moment, Ella wakes crying, as well. He curses and pulls the phone away to mute it. Praying that the sound of Ella crying hasn’t thrown Felicity off. She can’t afford a single distraction if she’s going to make it out of this alive._ _ _

___And god, she needs to make it out of this alive._ _ _

___Oliver is not ready to be a single parent. He’s not ready to be a widow._ _ _

___He goes to sit on the mats and pulls Ella into his arms, holding both of his daughters as they cry._ _ _

___With each gunshot that goes off, Oliver squeezes them that much tighter. By his calculations, Felicity has 5 bullets left._ _ _

___He doesn’t know what she’ll do if she runs out of bullets and can’t get another gun. Her fighting skills aren’t up to par. She won’t be able to overpower another man without an insane amount of luck and after this… He can’t imagine what her kidnappers will do to her if they catch her. He doubts she’ll have another chance to escape._ _ _

___“I want Mommy,” Grace cries into his shoulder and he whimpers. Oliver actually whimpers in response._ _ _

___John appears in front of him, silenting asking if Felicity is okay. Oliver nods. She’s still alive. For now._ _ _

___“I’ve called Anna and got us the Palmer Tech jet,” he says. “I’m taking the girls to Lyla. You need to gather up whatever supplies we need and be ready to go by the time I get back.”_ _ _

___Oliver nods in agreement, barely listening as he focuses his attention on Felicity. She’s just hissed in pain._ _ _

___“Felicity?” he says, before realizing that the phone is on mute._ _ _

___“You dumb bitch,” a man says harshly. “You’re out of bullets. What will you do now?”_ _ _

___“Don’t you dare touch me,” he hears her say through gritted teeth._ _ _

___He can hear a scuffle happening, but he can’t tell_ what _is happening and it’s making him incredibly nervous. He hands Ella off to John and tries to do the same with Grace, but she has a death grip on his shirt.__ _

___Oliver grabs the phone and takes it off of mute, so that he can talk to Felicity._ _ _

___“Felicity, tell me what’s going on,” he says loud enough to be heard over Ella’s continued cries._ _ _

___“Oliver!” she calls out desperately. “I can’t—” she starts to say, but is cut off by a gasp of pain._ _ _

___“Stay down!” the man says. His voice sounds garbled, like he’s choking on something._ _ _

___“Go to hell!” Felicity calls out. He hears a gunshot and then for several long seconds nothing._ _ _

___“Felicity!” he yells, causing Grace to flinch in terror._ _ _

___“Felicity!” he yells again when he doesn’t hear anything._ _ _

___He meets John’s eyes and they both stare at each other in fear._ _ _

___Then he hears Felicity coughing and she’s saying, “Ugh, gross. Now there’s really no saving this dress.”_ _ _

___“Felicity,” he cries out. “Are you hurt?”_ _ _

___“I’m fine,” she says. “Bruised and sore, but fine.”_ _ _

___He lets out a relieved breath and starts crying before he can even stop himself. Oliver kisses Grace on the forehead, too relieved that Felicity is okay to worry about the fact that he’s crying all over his three-year-old daughter. So relieved that Felicity’s alive, relatively unscathed, and okay._ _ _

___He feels like he’s just lost a good ten years off his life in the last ten minutes alone._ _ _

___“Are they all gone?” he asks, once he’s able to breathe again._ _ _

___“Yeah, I think so,” she says. “I don’t hear anyone else… Oh god. I killed all these guys.”_ _ _

___“They were going to kill you,” he says. “Don’t you dare feel guilty.”_ _ _

___“Can you come get me now?” Felicity asks. She sounds so young._ _ _

___“Yeah, of course,” he says. “John and I are coming right now.”_ _ _

___“Okay,” she says and he can hear the relief in her voice. “Is that Ella? Why is she crying?”_ _ _

___“She hasn’t eaten since waking up,” Oliver says. “She’s okay. Digg’s gonna feed her.”_ _ _

___He looks at John, who nods. “The second we get to my place, she’ll be fed.”_ _ _

___“Feed her now,” Felicity says, having obviously heard him. “Tell John you’re not waiting to feed my daughter because of me.”_ _ _

___“Felicity says to feed her now,” Oliver relays the message. “Are you sure they are all gone?”_ _ _

___He hates that she’s half a world away and that it’s going to take him forever to get to her._ _ _

___“As sure as I can be,” Felicity says._ _ _

___“I’m going to call Anatoly and see if he can’t have some of his men come and get you somewhere safe until I can get there.”_ _ _

___“Why would you call Anatoly?” she asks, confused._ _ _

___Right. Felicity still has no idea where she is. They’d been too preoccupied earlier to tell her._ _ _

___“You’re in Russia,” Oliver says._ _ _

___“What?!” she exclaims, clearly it’s the last things he expected to hear._ _ _

___“Let’s look at the brightside,” Oliver says. “You’re a total badass.”_ _ _

___“Daddy said a bad word,” Grace says, looking at him in shock._ _ _

___John snorts from where he’s currently feeding Ella._ _ _

___“Sorry…” he says to Grace at Felicity laughs fondly in the background. “And you’re on familiar territory. We can even take the time and get to know your Russian roots while you’re over there.”_ _ _

___“I want to go home,” Felicity says. “I don’t give a damn about my roots.”_ _ _

___“On it,” he says. “But really, it’s going to take us at least 13 hours to get there, maybe longer. I’m going to call Anatoly.”_ _ _

___“Okay, yeah. I like that plan. I really don’t want to hang around here with a bunch of dead guys while praying nobody else comes,” she says._ _ _

___“No, you won’t have to do that,” he says. “It’s over now, okay? I promise. I’m not going to let anything else happen to you.”_ _ _

___“I like that plan,” Felicity says. “And Oliver?”_ _ _

___He hums in response._ _ _

___“If I ever ask to go out into the field, please remind me of this very moment,” she says. She’s laughing but he can tell that she’s being completely honest. She has no desire to ever go out into the field again._ _ _

___He completely understands. He has no desire to ever see her out in the field again._ _ _

___“You’re getting wrapped in bubble wrap and never leaving the house again once I get you home,” he says. “We are never going through this again.”_ _ _

___“Deal,” she says. “I love you.”_ _ _

___“I love you, too. So much,” he says._ _ _

___He never thought he’d get to say those words to her again. For the last 16 days, he’s wanted nothing more than to hear her voice, and now he can. The nightmare is over. She’s going to be alright. He just needs to hop on a plane and go get her._ _ _

___“Can I talk to Grace?” she asks._ _ _

___“Sure,” he says and hands the phone over to Grace._ _ _

___“Can I have your phone, I need to call Anatoly,” he says to John, who hands him his phone._ _ _

___“Mommy?” Grace says. He can’t hear what Felicity is saying, but whatever it is, must be good because Grace is smiling and nodding along._ _ _

___“Yeah... Ella cries a lot… mhhmmm…” she says into the phone._ _ _

___Oliver puts Grace down on the ground and moves away so that he can call Anatoly without his daughter’s voice in the background. His old friend picks up within the first two rings and it barely takes a minute before the man is agreeing to go get Felicity and take care of her until Oliver can arrive. Apparently Donna had already made Anatoly aware of the kidnapping situation. He wants to ask more about how Anatoly and Donna know each other, but that’s a question for another day. Right now, he just wants to get off the phone as quickly as possible and back to Felicity._ _ _

___He says his thank yous and hangs up the phone. Grace is still chatting away happily._ _ _

___“Daddy lit the ma’orah candles… yeah… He said we can make the Christmas tree tomorrow. Do you wanna help?... Yeah… When you get back?... I miss you, Mommy.”_ _ _

___John is just finishing up feeding Ella, so he grabs Grace and pulls her into his arms so that they can make their way out to John’s car._ _ _

___“I can take them,” he offers, not wanting to be away from his daughters a second longer than he has to be._ _ _

___“I think it’ll be easier on everyone if you say goodbye now,” John says._ _ _

___Oliver nods, because he knows that’s probably true. He leans over where Ella is being burped and places a kiss on her forehead._ _ _

___“I promise, I’m coming home. Your mommy and I are both coming home,” he whispers into Ella’s ear._ _ _

___Ella must sense what is going on, even if she can’t understand him, because her little face scrunches up and she starts to cry._ _ _

___“Say goodbye to your Mom and Dad,” John says to Grace. “Your dad is going to get your mom, okay?”_ _ _

___Grace glares at her Uncle John and grabs onto a handful of Oliver’s shirt to show that she has no intention of letting go._ _ _

___“No,” she says._ _ _

___“Grace, I love you,” he says, squeezing her tightly with both arms. “I love you so much. You have to be a good girl for Aunt Lyla.”_ _ _

___“I wanna go with you,” Grace cries. “I wanna go get Mommy.”_ _ _

___“I know, Baby,” he says, tears starting to fall from his eyes at the way she’s positively shaking with fear. “But you need to stay here with Aunt Lyla. Just think, you’ll get to sleep over and play with Sara. You love playing with Sara.”_ _ _

___“I don’t wanna play with Sara!” she yells. “I want Mommy!”_ _ _

___Felicity must say something over the phone, because Grace holds it closer to her ear and starts whining, “No…”_ _ _

___“It’s just for a real short trip,” Oliver says. “When I come home, I’ll have your mom with me.”_ _ _

___“You can’t leave me,” she sobs, positively gutting him._ _ _

___“No, I’m not leaving you. I’ll never leave you. I’m coming back,” he says._ _ _

___“P’omise?” she asks, her bottom lip trembling as she pulls her head back to look into his eyes._ _ _

___“I promise,” he says._ _ _

___He hugs her one last time and then puts her in John’s arms with a hard look, telling him to take care of his children._ _ _

___He then places a lingering kiss on top of both girls heads, and takes the phone back from Grace as John walks out the door with his daughters._ _ _

___Oliver doesn’t know why he’s so upset. He is going to see them again in only a couple days. And he’s going to get Felicity. He_ has _to go. There’s nothing more important than making sure that Felicity is safe and home.__ _

___And it’s not like they will be in danger without him. Lyla is more than capable of protecting the girls, should anything come up, and Thea will be back soon, too._ _ _

___“It’s going to be okay,” Felicity says, making him realizing that at least part of that was likely said aloud._ _ _

___“I’m supposed to be telling you that,” Oliver says._ _ _

___“Well I know it’s going to be okay,” she says. “You’re coming to get me.”_ _ _

___He’s always amazed at the complete and utter trust that she puts in him._ _ _

___“I’ve missed you so much,” he tells her._ _ _

___“It can’t possibly be as much as I missed you. I thought that I wasn’t…” she trails off and he thinks that maybe she’s too overcome with emotion to finish her thought, but her sudden gasp has him realizing it’s something else._ _ _

___“What’s wrong?” he asks._ _ _

___“I just realized… I took all of them out,” she says._ _ _

___“Yeah. I know. I’m impressed. Good work,” Oliver says._ _ _

___Honestly, he’s still surprised that she had managed to take them all out without getting herself shot, too. But he’s not about to complain. Felicity is amazing in that way. She always finds a way to survive, against all odds. This is just another example of that._ _ _

___“No, you don’t understand,” she says, an urgent tone to her voice, begging him to catch up and realized whatever it is that she’s already realized. “I took all of them out. They barely put up a fight. I don’t understand…”_ _ _

___Oliver isn’t sure he’s following. Is she concerned that they weren’t harder to kill?_ _ _

___“Don’t complain. Anatoly has your location and will be there in 20 minutes to get you. You’re fine,” he reassures her._ _ _

___“Something’s wrong,” she says._ _ _

___Something in her tone tells him that she’s not over-reacting. That she’s actually figured out something incredibly important and dangerous._ _ _

___“No,” he says, refusing to believe anything more could possibly happen. “20 minutes. Just hold off for 20 minutes. You can do that.”_ _ _

___“Oliver…” she says, still frantic._ _ _

___“Felicity, please,” he says, practically begging. “Please, just hold off until I get there.”_ _ _

___Oliver hears the sound of somebody clapping and then the phone cuts out._ _ _

___“Felicity!” he yells. Immediately, he tries to call her back, but the call goes straight to voicemail._ _ _

___This can’t possibly be happening._ _ _

___He’d just gotten her back. He hasn’t even been able to hold her in his arms. How is this remotely fair?_ _ _

___He tries the number three more times, but each time it continues to go straight to voicemail. The fourth time he tries, he receives a message._ _ _

___“We’re sorry, the number you have reached has been disconnected.”_ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your patience this past week while I got my life together a bit and submitted my final portfolio/certification exam. We should be back to regularly scheduled postings every Saturday, from here on out. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought of the chapter! I love hearing everyone's feedback and their theories on what is happening!


	10. Shut Out of Paradise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks, as always to Emisfritish! Also, special shout out to Dettiot for being a good sounding board on this chapter!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2026**

“Tell me about your time away,” Allison, Felicity’s therapist, says.

“I almost kissed Oliver yesterday,” Felicity says, completely bypassing the topic of her captivity.

It’s her third session, and each time Allison has asked her about her kidnapping, Felicity hasn’t wanted to talk about it. She told Allison that she was kidnapped and tortured several years ago and that experience caused her to fall into a depression. She’s not sure what else she wants from her. Felicity’s not sure how going through the details of what happened is supposed to fix anything.

She started therapy in order to find a way forward. She’s not interested in reliving the past. She does that enough on her own.

“Almost? Why didn’t you?” Allison asks.

Felicity shrugs.

“It didn’t really seem fair to him?” she says, and it’s more of a question, like she’s asking if Allison agrees.

Felicity needs her approval. Needs to hear that she’s making the right choices, but all Allison ever does is ask her more questions.  _ Does Felicity think that’s the best choice? What does Felicity want to do? _ It’s annoying.

If she knew what to do, she wouldn’t be here. What she needs is answers.

“If you don’t think kissing Oliver would be fair, what led you to almost kiss him?” she asks.

“You’ve seen Oliver?” Felicity asks with a laugh. “He’s got these eyes and these lips… It’s not even normal. He’s walking sin. You don’t look at Oliver and not think about kissing him. And he was hugging me and being Mr. Considerate and I just couldn’t help it. I wanted to kiss him so badly. I used to be able to kiss him whenever I wanted, so it’s hardly fair that I remember how great he was at kissing… How good he could make me feel… and I just want to feel better. So I wanted to kiss him. But I  _ didn’t _ . Even though I wanted to. I  _ so _ wanted to. But I didn’t… That’s good right? You don’t think I should be kissing him either, right?”

“I’ve never said anything. You’re the one that says you shouldn’t be with him,” Allison says. “I’m more interested in talking about what happened when you were kidnapped.”

“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” she says, crossing her arms defensively.

“When I first met you, I asked you what you wanted from therapy. You told me you wanted to be the person you were before you were kidnapped. Is that still true?”

“Yes,” she says, squirming in her seat.

“I think if you want to be the person you were before you were kidnapped, we need to understand what happened to that person once you were kidnapped,” Allison says.

“Nothing happened to her,” she says immediately. “I mean… obviously  _ something _ happened. I was kidnapped. I was gone for 13 weeks. I spent 13 weeks away from my children and then Oliver was kidnapped, too. And… Obviously something happened. But it happened and it’s over. I just want to move on. Move forward.”

“Okay,” Allison says. “I want to help you move on, too.”

“Do you think I’m doing the right thing? Keeping Oliver away?” Felicity asks, changing the subject before Allison can try to convince her to talk about her kidnapping again.

“I think my answer is the same as it’s been the last 5 times you’ve asked me,” Allison says, not unkindly. “I think if you’ve pushed Oliver away, it’s for a reason. Perhaps you’d like to explain that reason to me?”

Felicity shrugs again. She really wouldn’t.

She can hardly tell her therapist that the reason she can’t be with Oliver is because she looks at him sometimes and all she can see is blood, bruises, and the life leaving his eyes as he struggles for air. She sees so much pain. His pain. Her pain. She looks at him and it’s impossible not to be transported back in time.

She can hardly explain that she thinks about inviting him over some nights when the sheets are cold and the room is too quiet, but when she picks up the phone to dial his number, all she can hear are his cries for everything to stop. All she can hear are the harsh yells for her to work faster if she wants Oliver to live.

She can’t tell her that Oliver reaches out for her sometimes and she thinks about how much she misses the pressure of her wedding ring digging into her skin whenever he would squeeze her hand. But before she can tell him so, she feels chains digging into her wrists as she pulls against them desperate to break free. Desperate to pull the men off of Oliver.

She can’t talk about how she looks at Oliver and it’s hard to forget that the only reason he’s still alive is because her father is dead.

****

**_2021_ **

_ “She’s going to be okay,” John says after Oliver checks his phone for what must be the millionth time. They’ve just boarded Palmer Tech’s private jet and are awaiting takeoff. _

_ “If she’s okay, why hasn’t she called back to tell us that?” he asks, trying to ignore the growing feeling of defeat in the pit of his stomach. Trying to ignoring the growing feeling that they’d had their chance to help Felicity, and now she was lost to them once again. _

_ “You said that her phone had been disconnected. She probably can’t call you back,” John says. _

_ “This is Felicity we are talking about,” he says. “You can’t tell me that she can’t figure out a way to make a phone work.” _

_ “She probably can and will,” John says. “You’ve just got to give her some more time. It’s only been a half an hour since you lost her call.” _

_ “Yes, and 10 minutes since Anatoly’s men were supposed to be there to help her. Why haven’t they called me back?!” he yells, losing his patience. _

_ He feels utterly helpless here, literally thousands of miles away from his wife. All the strength and training in the world, and he can’t do a damn thing to help her. What is the point of any of it, any of the experiences he’s had, if he can’t even keep the woman he loves safe? _

_ “I’m sure they are busy helping Felicity right now,” John says. “They’ll call when they get her to safety.” _

_ “If they get her to safety,” he mutters, not intending for John to hear him, but he does. _

_ “Hey, thinking like that isn’t going to help anyone. Felicity’s alive. We just talked to her. She took out countless men on her own. Our girl’s strong. She’ll figure out a way to protect herself until we can get to her. Losing hope right now won’t do you any good.” _

_ “I swear to god, Digg. Once we get her back, I’m going to hunt down every last member of the Final Order and put them in the ground. We are ending this,” Oliver says with complete conviction. _

_ John looks on with concern over how casually he’s discussing murder, but elects to hold his opinion. For that, Oliver is glad. He doesn’t need a lecture on morality right now. Not when his wife has been put in harm’s way for weeks. Not when they’ve made a murderer out of her. God, Felicity has always been his beacon of hope. His light in the darkness. He doesn’t know what he’ll do if those men managed to put that light out. _

_ “Let’s just focus on the task at hand,” John says. “We can worry about how to take down the Final Order later. Once Felicity is safely returned home.” _

_ “Yeah,” he says, not voicing what he’s really thinking. That he’s not sure, even if they can get her home, just what Felicity will be like. Will she continue to be his optimistic ray of sunshine, or will she be forever changed? Will this experience be her Lian Yu? _

_ Oliver checks his phone again as the flight attendant comes through and asks them to buckle their seatbelt and turn off their electronic devices. Oliver growls at her at the suggestion that he put his phone away and thankfully, she doesn’t argue the fact with him. _

_ 13 hours. In 13 hours, they will be landing in Tolyatti. After 16 days, surviving the next 13 hours should be a breeze. However, Oliver’s seriously tempted to ask John to sedate him. Currently, his mind is taunting him with images of Felicity standing over several dead bodies, covered in blood, with an empty look in her eyes. It’s fighting for dominance with the image of her crying as she bleeds out from a bullet to the chest. He pictures Grace’s face as he tries to explain to her that he hadn’t been able to rescue Felicity. It’s too much. He doesn’t know how he’ll be able to sit here for the next 13 hours replaying the same images over and over. _

_ But he can’t ask John for a sedative. He has to be awake in case Felicity calls him again. _

_ So he closes his eyes and does his best to force the terrible images out of his mind. Tries all of the meditation techniques he’s learned over the years, but nothing works. _

_ **** _

**2026**

_ Do you want to come over for dinner? _

Felicity reads Oliver’s text at least 20 times trying to figure out where his thought process is at. Is he inviting her to  _ dinner _ dinner, like a date, dinner? Because she thought she’d been pretty clear with him that dating isn’t an option for them at the moment. Or is he asking her to dinner in the same way that Digg or Curtis asks her to dinner? A shared meal between friends without any implication of anything except for food and adult conversation.

“Is this about Armageddon?” Curtis asks. “’Cause I thought you said that had been taken care of.”

“What?” she looks up from her phone. “Huh? No. It’s just… It’s nothing. Sorry. What were we talking about?”

“Do I even want to know why you haven’t heard a word I’ve said for the last 15 minutes?” he asks, looking up from his computer screen to glare at her.

“Oliver wants me to come over for dinner,” she says, showing him the text.

“Okay? Does he mean dinner or  _ dinner _ ?” he asks, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

“Exactly,” she sighs in frustration. “I have no idea!”

“You could always ask him,” Curtis says, closing out the program on his computer, realizing that they aren’t going to get any more work done before their noon meeting.

“Yeah. Sure. Great idea. Let me just text him back. Dear Oliver, what’s the deal? Is this a casual hang? A date? Code for sex?” she says sarcastically.

“Nobody says casual hang anymore. Go with,  _ I’d love to have dinner with you as friends _ ,” Curtis says. “Leaves no room for misunderstanding.”

Felicity groans, because she’s not sure that agreeing to dinner at all is a good idea. Not with how attentive Oliver’s been recently. The temptation to just let go of her resolve and fall into his arms again is too strong.

“You don’t want to have dinner with him as friends? Then why are we even having this conversation? Just tell him it’s a bad idea,” he says.

She groans again. Because as much as she knows having dinner with him would only end in pain and confusion, she doesn’t want to say no either.

“Straight people make everything so complicated,” Curtis says with a roll of his eyes. He takes her phone out of her hands and begins typing away. She tries to grab it out of his hands, but he holds it out of reach.

“There you go,” he says smugly, handing the phone back to her.

Felicity looks down at the text he just sent Oliver. It reads,  _ I don’t think that’s a good idea. _

“You remember that I’m your boss right?” she grumbles, glaring at him.

“Nope,” he says. “You don’t get to play the work card when you’ve been ignoring business this entire meeting and we’ve gotten nothing done. I sent that text as your best friend, not your employee.”

“Do you think that I’m doing the right thing by keeping Oliver away?” she asks, staring at her phone, anxiously awaiting Oliver’s response. Tempted to text him again and say that she didn’t mean it, that she’d love to have dinner with him.

“What did your therapist tell you?” Curtis asks.

“She won’t tell me anything,” she says. “All she does is ask me questions.”

“Questions that I’m guessing you refuse to answer,” he says, giving her a knowing look.

“I answer some,” she says defensively.

“I’m sure. But are you answering the ones that matter?” he asks.

“I can’t talk about my time away,” she whispers, shaking her head. “I can’t relive it again.”

Curtis stands up and pulls her into his arms, holding her close. She doesn’t realize it until he’s quietly whispering into her ear that everything will be alright, but she’s shaking.

“You did what you had to do to survive, and nobody faults you for that,” he says.

“ _ I _ fault me for that,” she says.

“Which is why you should talk to your therapist,” Curtis says. “It’s been 5 years, Felicity. You shouldn’t still be in this much pain over what happened.”

Felicity knows that he’s right. It’s been too long and there’s no reason why she should still be living with so much grief. It’s understandable that she’s still affected by what happened. She may never completely heal from the events of her kidnapping, just like Oliver may never be 100% over what happened on Lian Yu. But Curtis is right, there’s no reason why even the thought of Syria… The thought of her father… Should still be so debilitating.

She doesn’t understand why it hasn’t gotten better.

Felicity assumed once she got home and was safe again, she would begin to heal. But it never happened. Many days, it feels like she’s still being held captive.

Except she traded her chains and zip ties for grief and overwhelming guilt.

****

**_2021_ **

_ “What do you mean she’s not there?” Oliver asks Anatoly. _

_ He could say that he is starting to panic, but the truth is he’d been panicked ever since he’d lost Felicity’s phone call hours ago. _

_ “My men have searched the location you gave us. They’ve looked everywhere and they can’t find your Felicity anywhere,” Anatoly explains. _

_ Oliver rubs his hands over his face in frustration. _

_ “Look again,” he demands. _

_ “They’ve been looking. For  _ hours _ ,” Anatoly explains. “She’s not there. I’m on my way to Tolyatti myself to check, but Oliver… These men are some of my best. If they say she’s not there. She’s not there.” _

_ “So they took her again,” he says. _

_ John curses and Oliver looks up to see he’s stood up and is now pacing the narrow walkway of the plane. _

_ “Oliver, there’s no evidence she was ever there,” Anatoly says. _

_ “That’s not possible,” he whispers. “If Felicity isn’t there, then where the hell is she?” _

_ Felicity is out there, somewhere, alone and possibly hurt. Even if she’s no longer being held captive… Even if she’s somehow managed to escape her kidnappers… Will she even be able to find her way back home? She’s alone, quite possibly without any access to money, in what is likely a foreign country. _

_ His Felicity. A gorgeous, blonde-haired, blue-eyed American. Alone. He doesn’t even want to think about the amount of potential dangers she faces. _

_ But being alone in a foreign country is much better than the alternative. That her kidnappers have gotten ahold of her again, and are likely punishing her for killing their men and attempting to escape. _

_ Oliver closes his eyes and tries to suppress the feeling that he can’t breathe. He can feel an anxiety attack coming, but he pushes it down. He can’t afford to panic right now. Not while Felicity is out there, alone, scared, and in desperate need of his help. _

_ He breathes in deep, but chokes on a sob. _

_ “I’ve got the entire Bratva asking around for leads,” Anatoly says. “If she’s in Russia, if she was  _ ever in _ Russia, we’ll find her.” _

_ Oliver barely registers Anatoly’s words. He barely registers the phone dropping from his shaking hand. He certainly doesn’t register John picking up the phone and taking over the responsibility of talking with Anatoly. _

_ He closes his eyes, against the suddenly, too harsh glare of sunlight through the window. When he opens his eyes again, he’s no longer on a plane. He’s fighting for air as he frantically swims to the surface. The boat he’d just been on has capsized. He’s just watched Sara Lance get ripped away before he could save her. _

_ He remembers this moment. He’d made his way to the surface and his father had pulled him onto the lifeboat. Only this time, he’s kicking his legs, and he’s not going anywhere. His body keeps getting pulled under, farther and farther under, until his entire body gives out on him. He stops fighting it. He gives in and lets himself drown. _

_ “We need to make sure that she’s not allowed out of the country if she’s still there,” he hears John say but it sounds far away.  _

_ He thinks he must be imagining it. He looks around and John is standing next to him, wearing a black tux that Felicity had picked out for him. He’d wanted to get married in Bali, just the two of them, but Felicity had insisted. She’d wanted their entire family there. She didn’t want to run from their relationship anymore, and he couldn’t argue with that. _

_ Oliver’s breath catches in his throat as the doors at the back of the church open and he sees her in her wedding dress for the first time. She’s breathtaking. A million times more beautiful than the last time. The last time, hadn’t been real. She’d only put on that wedding dress to save the city. This time… This time she’d put on that wedding dress with the sole intention of marrying him. _

_ His eyes fill with tears as she starts walking towards him. Her smile is blinding, but he knows that his must be bigger. They’ve been through hell and back together. He spent weeks thinking that she would never talk to him again. That he’d not only lost her as a partner, but as a teammate as well. Only, she’s back now. She returned to him, and after several long conversations about the status of their relationship… After many promises to never,  _ never _ lie to her again, she agreed to marry him. _

_ Hell,  _ she’d _ been the one to propose to  _ him _. _

_ Felicity is about to become his wife and with their vows, she’ll wipe away every bad thing that has ever happened to him. With their union, he’ll finally become whole. _

_ “Oliver, man, are you okay?” he hears John ask him. He feels hands on his shoulders, but he ignores them in favor of the beautiful woman in front of him. _

_ But something isn’t right. There’s a harsh glow over everything. It’s one of the happiest moments of his life, but it’s  _ not _. There’s something wrong. Something distorted. Then Felicity is bleeding through the white of her gown and when he runs to reach her, to help her, she slips through his fingers. _

_ “Oliver! You’ve got to breathe, man,” John says, and his voice is growing louder as the image of Felicity in her gown starts to fade away. _

_ “No!” he calls out. “We have to help her!” _

_ “We will,” John says. _

_ Gunshots go off and Oliver covers as much of Felicity’s body as he can, doing everything possible to protect her from the reign of terror being inflicted upon them. _

_ He has to get them out of here. The longer they stay here, they more threat they face. Oliver can’t let anything happen to her. _

_ He makes the split second decision to climb into the front of the limo. He pushes the driver, who’s now dead, out of the way and slams down on the gas pedal as hard as he can. _

_ The moment passes in a blur. The next thing he knows he’s pulling Felicity out of the limo. She’s unconscious and bleeding. She’s been shot. _

_ Oliver had failed to protect her, and now she might be dying. _

_ “Well, was it worth it? All that pain and misery you brought back from the island? Merlyn, Slade Wilson? Wouldn’t it be better if you just died there?” Lance taunts him. _

_ “I wish you would have died on that island,” Tommy says. _

_ “Oliver, man. You need to take a deep breath. Please. You’ve got to calm down and focus,” John says, but his voice is overpowered by another, more sinister one.  _

_ “How many people can Oliver Queen lose before there is no more Oliver Queen?” Slade asks him. _

_ Slade holds a sword to Felicity’s neck while she trembles in fear. It takes everything in him to put down his bow, but he can’t risk Slade killing Felicity. He has to trust that she will be okay. That she’ll get the cure in Slade and with it, they’ll be able to take him down. Shooting him with an arrow now won’t do anything. _

_ “No!” he cries out as Slade laughs and slices through Felicity’s delicate skin. He looks on in shock as her blood pools out onto the concrete floor. _

_ Oliver had done that. He’d put her in harm’s way. _

_ He is always putting her in harm’s way. The mother of his children. What kind of person does that? _

_ All Oliver ever brings is pain and suffering to those he loves. This? What’s happening to Felicity? It’s his fault. He’d had her. She’d reached out for him. She’d called him, fully expecting him to save her. And he’d failed. She’s lost to him and he only has himself to blame. _

_ “Have you seen him like this before?” A vaguely familiar voice says. He can’t quite place it. It’s like he’s hearing it through a fog. _

_ “Once before, when Felicity got shot. But it wasn’t this bad,” John says. “He’s been like this for hours.” _

_ He’s laying down on something soft, and he’s not really sure what happened to the plane they’d just been on. Everything is blurred, like he’s trying to look at something underwater. _

_ “What got him out of it last time?” the voice asks. _

_ “The doctor saying that she’d survived the surgery.” _

_ “We have to do something,” the voice says, and Oliver can finally place it. _

_ He goes to open his eyes, to get a good look at his old friend, but when he sees him, it’s not as he is now. It’s as they were. _

_ The two of them are on a submarine trying to come up with a plan to get Sara back from Slade. Oliver is telling Anatoly to sink the Amazo if he’s not back in an hour. Oliver says this, with full confidence that he’ll find a way to get Sara back in time. That they’ll take down Slade and make their escape. That he’ll finally make it home. _

_ He’s always been so naïve. So incredibly stupid. _

_ He hadn’t been able to save Sara then and she’d ended up being pulled into the League of Assassins. How had he ever thought he’d be able to save Felicity now? _

_ He opens his eyes again and it’s to find Felicity holding a gun at him, crying. She’s covered in blood, but none of it is hers from what he can tell. _

_ “You were supposed to save me,” she says, her eyes angrier than he’s ever seen them. There’s not an ounce of the light or love he’s used to seeing in them. _

_ She fires the gun and the bullet slices through him. He falls to the ground. He watches as she walks away from him with barely a backwards glance. As the blood pours out of him, he begins to lose his grip on consciousness. _

_ When he opens his eyes again, he’s in a hotel room with Diggle and Anatoly staring at him in concern. _

_ “I’m fine,” he says, but knows it doesn’t convince them. _

_ All he feels is numb. He sits up on the couch and stares blankly ahead, realizing that nothing is going to matter to him ever again. Not without her. The little spark of life that he had before was gone. None of it matters anymore. She was his reason for everything, and without her, there’s just no point. _

_ He may as well have died on that island. _

_ “Come on, Oliver,” John says, pulling him into his arms. It’s a testament to how awful Oliver is feeling that he doesn’t even fight it. “You’re better than this. Think of Felicity—“ _

_ “I am thinking of Felicity!” he cries out. “That’s all I’m thinking about!” _

_ “Think of Grace and Ella. They need you to be strong right now,” he says. “I get it. I understand how awful you’re feeling right now. I know how much easier it would be to succumb to the grief, but you have to stop. Your daughters need you to pull yourself together. Felicity needs you to pull yourself together so that we can find her.” _

_ “I don’t know if I can,” Oliver admits. _

_ He drops his head into his hands, so he misses John pull out his phone and dial home. But Anatoly doesn’t. _

_ “Do you really think that’s a good idea?” Anatoly asks. _

_ “I don’t have a better one,” John says. _

_ Oliver ignores the two of them as he starts making plans. The first thing he’ll do is get a ride to the airport and catch the first plane to Hong Kong. From there, he can hire a private plane to take him to Lian Yu. The girls will be fine. There’s paperwork in place to ensure that Thea will be their legal guardian. They’ll be better off with her. They don’t need Oliver in their lives. _

_ They’ll be better off. _

_ Safer. _

_ What happened to Felicity won’t happen to his children. Not if he’s out of their lives. _

_ “Daddy?” Grace’s voice interrupts his thoughts and he looks up to glare at John for calling her. How dare he! What gave him the right to call her when he knows damn well they have no good news to give the girl? _

_ “Did you find Mommy yet? I drew’d her a card. Look!” _

_ He can picture her holding up her card for him to see, never quite mastering the difference between a phone call and a video call. _

_ “It’s beautiful, Baby,” Oliver says. “I’m sure she’ll love it.” _

_ “Yeah. But not as much as she loves me,” Grace says, with confidence. It causes Oliver to smile, despite himself. _

_ “Of course not. Your mom will never love anything as much as she loves you,” he says. _

_ “And you and baby Ella,” Grace says. _

_ He’s positive that’s not true. At least not the part where Felicity would still love him after everything that’s happened. She’d reached out to him for help and he’d let her down. There’s no way she’ll still love him after he’s failed her so horribly. _

_ “Daddy?” _

_ “Yeah?” he asks. _

_ “I as’ed you a question,” she says, and if it were possible, he can  _ hear _ her rolling her eyes at him. _

_ “I’m sorry, what did you say?” he asked. _

_ She sighs in annoyance, like she always does when she feels like he’s not listening, and says, “When are you and Mommy coming home? I want you here.” _

_ And with that simple request, all thoughts of fleeing from his problems are gone. John is right. It would be easy to run right now. To let himself drown in his sorrows, but he can’t. There are people who need him.  _ His family _ needs him. It was selfish of him to even think about running from this. _

_ “Soon, Baby. I’ll be home soon,” he promises. _

_ “With Mommy?” she asks. _

_ And though it guts him to make a promise he’s not positive that he can keep, he says, “Of course. With Mommy.” _

_ Oliver spends 5 more minutes on the phone with Grace, reassuring her that everything will be okay. By the time he’s hanging up with a final ‘I love you,’ he’s actually feeling the stirrings of hope himself. _

_ Perhaps he can still find a way to get them all through this. After all, they’ve certainly overcome the odds before. And Felicity is nothing if not determined. If there is a way to make it out alive, she’ll find it. She wouldn’t leave them. _

_ “How are you feeling?” John asks when he hands him back his phone. _

_ “Exhausted,” he admits. “But better. Thanks for calling Grace.” _

_ “Sometimes we just need a reminder of what we’re fighting for,” John says, with a small smile. _

_ “Do I even want to know how long I’ve been in and out of it?” Oliver asks. _

_ “Several hours,” John says. “Anatoly thinks he might have a lead on Felicity’s location, but he hasn’t been able to get confirmation.” _

_ Oliver stands up and reaches for the coat he didn’t even remember discarding. “What are we waiting for, then? Let’s go.” _

_ It’s a testament to their friendship that John doesn’t even suggest waiting for Anatoly’s confirmation. He simply grabs his own coat and starts gathering weapons. _

_ **** _

**2026**

Felicity stands in the kitchen looking over takeout menus, trying to figure out what to order that would be somewhat healthy while also edible for Grace and Ella. They’ve already had Mario’s and Big Belly Burger this week, and she’s feeling guilty at thinking about ordering pizza again this week. She looks down at her phone to re-read her texts with Oliver over again.

_ To Felicity: Do you want to come over for dinner? _

_ To Oliver: I don’t think that’s a good idea. _

_ To Felicity: It’s just dinner. You can’t feed the girls fast-food every day of the week. _

_ To Oliver: I don’t feed them fast food EVERY day of the week. _

_ To Felicity: I’m cooking your favorite lasagna. Roy and Thea will be there. It won’t be romantic. You know you’d appreciate a home cooked meal for once. It’d be healthier for the girls… _

Felicity knows he’s right, but that doesn’t mean that she can justify going over to his place for dinner either.

Not with the way he’s been looking at her recently… And sure as hell not for Italian.

Italian food is too romantic. It’s what they’d had on their first date. It’s memories of their time in Italy during the first few months of their relationship. It’s what Oliver used to cook her when he wanted to spend the rest of the night in bed making love. And lasagna? It’s the first meal they’d had in their home in Ivy Town. The meal they’d been eating when Felicity found out she was pregnant with Grace.

She’s not sure what Oliver had meant by the offer. He’d claimed it was simply a meal, but Italian food will never be ‘just a meal’ for them. And after yesterday’s  _ ‘It’s not going to be a quick moment of weakness on a couch. It’s going to be long… passionate… and a promise’ _ confession that left her in chills?

Felicity isn’t sure she can trust herself around Oliver at the moment.

Scratch that. She  _ knows _ she can’t trust herself around Oliver at the moment. The way he’d looked at her yesterday when they’d been sitting on that couch… She’d wanted to kiss him so badly. She’d barely been able to stop herself from crawling into his lap and begging him to take her right then and there.

The last thing she needs is a romantic home-cooked meal at Oliver’s.

So... takeout.  _ Healthy _ takeout. It's her way of justifying choosing to come home rather than go over to Oliver’s for dinner. Even if he had claimed it was only dinner.

Nothing between them will ever be classified as  _ only  _ anything. Especially not Italian food.

“When are we eating?” Ella asks from her spot on the couch. “I'm so hungry I might die.”

At which point, she dramatically falls to the ground and feigns death.

Grace shoots Felicity an unamused ‘do you see what I have to live with’ look, that has Felicity smiling.

“I'm ordering us food now. But you can have a snack if you want,” she says, to which Ella jumps to her feet and runs into the kitchen to go through the snack drawer.

“Grandma cooked us a snack and Ella wouldn't eat any,” Grace tells her.

“Grandma can't cook,” Ella says, glaring at her sister for tattling on her.

“Okay, let's not fight,” Felicity says. “Did you both finish your homework?”

“I have a science project due on Friday. Dad said to wait ‘til you could help me,” Grace tells her.

“Did  _ he _ say that or did  _ you _ say that?” She asks, already knowing the answer.

Oliver had told her this morning about Grace’s refusal to let him touch any of her science homework, despite the fact that Oliver knows enough basic science to help with a third grade project.

“Well he tried to help, but he’s just the mayor. You own a whole science company,” she says with a roll of her eyes. Like being mayor of the city is something to scoff at.

People warned her about the terrible twos when she was pregnant. Grace and Ella both managed to skate through their toddler years with relative ease. What nobody warned her about was what happens at 8. Grace has been such a handful lately, thinking she's older than she is and testing her boundaries with everyone.

Felicity takes a deep breath.

“Being the major is a very hard job — one that I could never handle — and your dad’s been doing it for years. You should give him more credit. He’s is perfectly qualified to help you with your homework. You didn't even let him try,” she says.

“I let him help me with my social studies,” Grace says matter-of-factly. “I just like when  _ you _ help with math and science.”

“She's just mad you and Daddy don't live together,” Ella says, chocolate all over her face as she tries to eat pudding out of a cup without a spoon. “I heard her tell Grandma.”

“You're not supposed to be listening to me!” Grace yells at Ella.

“Then don't talk so loud! You always forget I'm there!” Ella says, her eyes starting to well up with tears.

“Okay, stop,” Felicity says, handing Ella a spoon and a napkin while looking pointedly at Grace.

“She always spies on me,” Grace says, stomping her foot.

“Do not!” Ella cries.

“Everyone, take a deep breath,” she says. “Ella, it's not nice to listen in on other people’s conversations. And if you do hear other people’s conversations, it's not polite to talk about it.”

“Thank you,” Grace says, causing Felicity to fix her with a stern look.

“Grace, if you want to have a private conversation, you should make sure you are someplace private so that you aren't overheard. And you need to start treating your sister with respect. She's your family and one of these days you're going to understand how precious that is.”

“Sorry,” Grace says reluctantly.

“It's okay,” Ella says with a bright smile and a shrug. “I still love you.”

Felicity points to Ella's adorable face while looking at Grace in a way that says, ‘How could you not love her?’

“Fine,” Grace says, clearly trying very hard to stay annoyed but a smile makes its way onto her face despite her best efforts.

“I’m going to order us dinner, then I’ll help you with your project,” Felicity says. “Go get your backpack.”

The rest of the evening passes by without further incident, for which, Felicity is happy. It’s exhausting being a single mother. She loves her daughters more than life itself and she wouldn’t trade them for the world. However, there are days where she really misses having somebody at home with her to share the load. To help referee fights as they come up. To help with homework, baths, bedtimes, and all the other million things that come up throughout the day.

Obviously, she’s not completely alone. Oliver has the girls half of the week, which gives her a break from the chaos. It’s supposed to be nice, according to her mother. Donna likes to remind Felicity that she never had anyone to take Felicity for the night so that she could have some “Mommy Time.”

In theory, it does sound nice. In practice, it’s hell. Typically, she ends up spending the nights the girls are with Oliver buried in work. Being at home without the girls reminds her too much of her time in captivity. The quiet house reminds her of those 93 days without her daughters. It reminds her of nights wondering if anyone was taking care of her children. If somebody was kissing them goodnight and telling them they were loved.

She’ll never admit this to anyone, but there are nights where she can barely stop herself from going over to Oliver’s and demanding that the girls come back home. Those are the nights that she ends up in one of the girl’s beds crying herself to sleep.

So no, she doesn’t necessarily need a break from her children. What she needs is help at home. She needs her family all under one roof. She needs Oliver home.

And that’s a very dangerous thought.

Because no matter the fact that her therapist won’t confirm it, Felicity is certain that inviting Oliver back home before she herself has found a way out from under the deep depression she’s been in for years would be the wrong answer. It would be the easy way out. She may not understand how to stand on her own two feet again, or if it’s even possible, but she won’t figure it out while using Oliver as a crutch.

****

**_2021_ **

_ Oliver walks as quietly, and quickly as he can into the warehouse, quickly finding cover behind a wall. He holds his gun out while doing a quick scan around the corner, before waving Digg in. So far, they haven’t caught sight of anyone, which is a little peculiar considering all the Final Order hideouts they’ve come across in their search for Felicity have been fairly well guarded, but he doesn’t think much about it. It doesn’t mean she’s not here. _

_ The sound of a door opening and closing in the distance catches his attention as he hears footsteps echo in the large empty room. The men aren’t speaking any language he knows, but it sounds Slavic. He wonders if it’s Polish… or possibly Ukrainian. _

_ However, he doesn’t have to understand what they are saying to recognize that one of the men has just said ‘Queen.’ _

_ Digg gives him a significant look. If Felicity’s not here, they at least know where she is. Oliver signals for him to stay where he is, so that he’ll have backup in case he gets caught. Then he makes his way out from behind the wall he’s hiding behind and immediately shoots the guns out of both men’s hands.   _

_ They call out, but Oliver doesn’t understand what they are saying. It doesn’t matter, he can assume that they’ve called for backup. He quickly shoots both men in the legs. A flesh wound. They’ll have hours before they bleed out. Plenty of time to get information from them, but enough pain to make it difficult to run away. _

_ The sounds of several footsteps catches his attention and he turns to a doorway to watch as several men holding machine guns make their way through the door and begin shooting at him. He quickly runs out of the way of their fire and finds an old metal shelf that he quickly tips over and uses for cover. _

_ He doesn’t hear what they say, but he hears them use his name. They know who he is. Which is a good sign, he reminds himself. It further emphasizes the fact that they must be the men holding Felicity. _

_ “Where’s my wife?” he calls out loudly to be heard over all the gunfire, then does so again in Russian just to make sure his message is clear. _

_ The gunfire stops as a man calls out to him, “We have your wife, Mr. Queen. Surrender and you can see her.” _

_ He debates his options. On one hand surrendering means giving up his weapon, and his advantage to fighting their way out of here once he’s got Felicity. On the other hand, he will do just about anything to see her again. And he doesn’t trust any of these men not to kill her simply out of anger at his own actions. _

_ Knowing Digg is still there and armed, he slowly stands up, ready to dive if they start shooting again but they don’t. _

_ “Surrender your weapons,” a man says as the line of armed men parts and one man makes his way through the crowd and over to him. _

_ Oliver slowly reaches into his belt, takes his gun, and throws it to the floor. _

_ “I know you didn’t come here with only one handgun,” the man says. “Surrender all of your weapons, or we won’t take you to her.” _

_ Oliver debates just how many of the weapons he has hidden on his person he’ll have to surrender before they’ll believe he’s unarmed. 4? 5? He reaches into his sock and pulls out another gun. Then he reaches into his belt and throws two knives at the floor again. He also surrenders the knife in his other sock and the gun in the inside pocket of his coat. _

_ “That’s everything,” he says. _

_ The man scoffs at him. _

_ “Search him,” he orders one of his men. “There’s no way he doesn’t have at least 2 more on him.” _

_ Oliver tries to hide his sigh of frustration. He’s right. He’s got 2 more knives and one more gun on him, but was hoping they wouldn’t find that out. _

_ One of the lackeys comes over to him and starts patting him down, quickly finding the gun and both knives. Oliver has to resist the urge to fight back with everything in him. He’s outnumbered and outgunned. He may have faced worse odds in the past, but he can’t risk it. Not when he’s so close to Felicity. She’s counting on him getting her back home safely, and to do that, he has to be alive. _

_ As subtly as possible, Oliver’s eyes roam over to the corner he knows that Digg is hiding and sends him a silent warning to wait. At the moment, Digg is the only one of them that still has any firepower on him, and they’re going to need it. He can’t afford to get caught. Not yet. Not until they know where they are holding Felicity. _

_ “I believe I was told I could see my wife,” Oliver says through gritted teeth. _

_ The man, the obvious leader, nods at another one of the lackeys who heads out through the door. Oliver can only assume he’s off to get Felicity. _

_ Oliver closes his eyes and says a silent prayer that she’s unharmed. He’s not sure he’ll be able to maintain his cool if she comes back battered and bruised. _

_ “I must say, I’m impressed Mr. Queen. Who would have thought that Star City’s mayor had it in him? To come all this way and show up alone. They told me not to underestimate you, but I’m impressed. I never expected this,” the man says. _

_ “Is that why you took my wife? To see what I’m capable of?” he asks, glaring at the man. _

_ “Hardly,” the man says with a smirk. “Your wife has her own skillset we’re interested in. But I’m sure you already know all about her work with The Green Arrow, don’t you?” _

_ Oliver freezes, trying not to show his confusion and concern. They knew that Felicity was Overwatch. But if that was true, how did they not know that he was The Green Arrow? _

_ He hears two sets of footsteps coming up stairs and turns to watch a woman with a hood covering her head get pushed through the door. Oliver’s eyes roam her body, looking for obvious signs of injury, and the first thing he notices, within seconds, is that the woman is certainly  _ not _ Felicity. _

_ For starters, she’s about a few inches too tall. Felicity wears her heels for a reason, she’s tiny. Then there’s the bare, tattoo-free ankle. On their first wedding anniversary in the Maldives, she’d gotten a small, white, barely noticeable arrow tattoo on her ankle. Then, there’s the flat chest and too narrow hips. Felicity has always had curves, but after two children, they’ve developed even more. _

_ Oliver doesn’t know who the woman in front of him is, but it’s not Felicity. His eyes go back and forth from the woman to the man in charge, weighing his options. He can let them know that he’s aware this isn’t his wife and demand to see her. Or he can hold that knowledge to himself. He’s been in his fair share of tricky situations and he knows that this all requires a delicate hand. Showing his hand at the wrong moment will only end bad for everyone. _

_ The question is, when is the right time to show his hand. _

_ He has no idea. _

_ His eyes widen as several of the men hold up their guns to the woman’s head. _

_ “Mr. Queen, you’re going to do exactly as we tell you, or your wife is dead. Do you understand?” _

_ Oliver debates if the woman under the hood is another innocent, or if she’s in on the game. He looks to the way her hands and knees are shaking, but clearly trying not to. It’s subtle, but he notices. She’s not just pretending to be scared, she’s actually scared. _

_ And if Oliver makes a wrong move, whoever she is, will be killed. _

_ “What do you want?” he asks, keeping his voice even. _

_ “We want to test the extent of your connection with your wife,” he explains. _

_ Oliver feels his stomach sink. “What does that even mean?” _

_ “It means, you talk a big talk about being willing to do anything for your wife,” he says. “But we want to know if that’s really true.” _

_ “Of course it’s true,” Oliver says. _

_ The man smirks and signals towards the corner where Digg’s been hiding. Oliver looks on in fear as several men come out of hiding. Digg holds his own for awhile, taking several of the men out, but eventually he’s overpowered and dragged into the center of the room to stand beside the woman who’s supposed to be Felicity but isn’t. _

_ “Prove it,” the man says with a smirk. _

_ Oliver looks between Digg and the woman nervously trying to put together what the man is asking of him. It doesn’t take long. He wants him to make a choice. A choice that’s really not that hard at all, because it’s certainly  _ not _ a choice between Felicity or Digg. It’s a choice between a complete stranger and Digg. The only problem is, the second he reveals that, they will likely kill him. _

_ “You want me to kill my best friend in order to get my wife back,” Oliver says, glaring at the man. “What does that accomplish?” _

_ “It confirms a theory our boss has,” the man says. “So what’s it going to be Mr. Queen. Your lovely wife or your best friend?” _

_ Oliver, for the life of him, cannot understand how he is constantly put in this position. Where he’s asked to make decisions over who should live and who should die. It’s completely unfair. Why should he be the one to play god? _

_ “Oliver, just do it,” Digg says, drawing Oliver’s attention back to him. “We know that there’s only one real choice to make here.” _

_ As soon as Oliver meets his eyes and is about to protest, he sees it on Digg’s face. Digg knows that the woman isn’t Felicity. He knows the entire thing is a trap. The two of them have a silent conversation that must appear like they are arguing over whether or not Oliver can kill his best friend or not. However, what they are really doing is silently strategizing just how they are going to fight their way out of this. _

_ Digg’s eyes go to the man next to Oliver to signal that Oliver needs to take him out first. Oliver communicates that Digg’s best bet is to take out the man to his right first, before attempting to take on the one to his left. Once they’ve come up with a plan, Oliver wastes no time in reaching out to punch the man standing next to him and pull him in front of his body to protect him from the sudden onslaught of gunfire in his direction. _

_ He pushes forward to reach out and grab onto the side of one of the men’s machine guns and uses all of his strength to slam the butt of the gun into the man’s head. As the man is sinking to the ground, Oliver rips the gun out of his hands and drops the human shield to use both hands to aim and shoot. He immediately takes out three men, including one that is about to get the drop on Digg. _

_ Digg manages to arm himself shortly after and they both stand side by side, taking out men as fast as they can, and somehow managing to narrowly avoid getting shot themselves. It feels like it takes hours, but Oliver knows it likely takes only a few minutes. But finally, they are able to take out all of the men. Well, almost all of the men. The leader had somehow managed to escape in all of the chaos. _

_ “Did you see where he went?” Oliver asks. _

_ Digg shakes his head, but drops his gun to move to the woman, who, unfortunately got caught in the crossfire and is lying still on the ground. He pulls the hood off of her to reveal her face. _

_ “Jesus, she can’t be more than 16,” Digg says. “Who do you think she was?” _

_ “Honestly, she’s probably just some girl off the street,” he says, trying not to allow the guilt of the woman — the  _ girl’s _ — death to overcome him. They still have to find the leader and find what they’ve done with Felicity. He can grieve later. _

_ He’s so busy trying not to look at the girl’s face and picture how easily that could have been Felicity who’d gotten caught in the crossfire, that he doesn’t even notice the shot being fired at him from the rafters above. _

****

**2026**

“Mom!” Ella yells at her from downstairs. “Your phone!”

Felicity hears the sound of little feet running up the stairs and she turns to the door just as Ella throws it open and comes running up to her, phone in hand.

“Mr. Wade is on the phone,” she says. “Can we play with Sara and JJ today?”

“Not today, you have school,” Felicity says, taking the phone from Ella. “Go get dressed, we need to leave in fifteen minutes.”

“Hello?” Felicity says into the phone, unsure who Mr. Wade is and why he needs to talk to her.

“Mrs. Queen,” the man says.

“It’s Ms. Smoak,” she corrects him, sure by now that it’s a telemarketer calling. Anyone that knows her, knows that she is no longer married. “Who is this?”

“I’m hurt you don’t recognize my voice,” he says. “It’s Bruce Wayne.”

Now that he says it, Felicity does recognize his voice. Vaguely.

“Ah, yes. Mr. Wayne. What can I do for you?” she asks. She’d spoken to Lucius Fox yesterday, so she knows that Batman took care of the Armageddon problem and they no longer have to concern themselves with worries of a plague terrorizing the country.

“Lucius told me that you have been investigating The Council,” he says.

“The Council?”

She has never heard of them, so she has no idea what he is talking about.

“The terrorist organization that paid The Battalion of Doom to attack Gotham,” Bruce clarifies for her.

“How did you find that out?” she asks, annoyed that he’s been on the case for less than 48 hours and has been able to get more information than she’s been able to in 6 weeks. Proves just how useful she is.

“I have my ways,” he says, evasively. Not unlike Oliver used to get whenever she would question him about something she knew related to his time on the island.

Felicity is sure that he’s likely tortured the information out of somebody. From what Sara has told her, Batman was trained by the League of Assassins. Perhaps that’s been Team Arrow’s problem all along. Oliver doesn’t torture people for information anymore…

She really hopes that’s not true, because the last thing she wants is for Oliver to loose any piece of the light he fought so hard to find.

“I want to know how I can help,” Bruce says.

Felicity tries to picture Oliver and Bruce Wayne in the same room, working side by side… It’s an awful idea. There is no way that either man will be able to work with the other without somebody ending up in the hospital.

“For now?” she says, hesitant to outright deny his offer because… Hello, heroes dying left and right means you want as many allies as you can get… But it’s not as if they need Batman here right this second. She doesn’t even know anything about The Council yet. She can wait until they at least find out what the endgame is here.

“Just take care of Gotham,” Felicity tells him.

“Ms. Smoak…” he says, sighing in frustration. “If this is about Oliver—”

“It’s not,” she says, cutting him off before he can start.

It is, but she doesn’t have to tell  _ him _ that.

“Mr. Wayne, The Council paid The Battalion one million dollars to kill you—”

“That’s insulting,” he says. “I’m obviously worth more than that.”

And that? That comment right there? That’s why she isn’t surprised that Bruce and Oliver don’t get along. Bruce Wayne is clearly just as egotistical as Oliver was before Lian Yu happened. She wouldn’t be surprised if at least part of Oliver’s dislike of Bruce now stems from the fact that he reminds Oliver of who he used to be.

“Mr. Wayne, The Battalion was willing to let Armageddon out just to get to you,” she says, trying to hurry up and end this conversation. At the rate they are going, Felicity is definitely going to be late dropping the girls off at school. “You may have stopped it, and thank god you did, but don’t for a second think that means the Battalion isn’t still going to come after you.”

“I can take care of myself,” Bruce says at the same moment that Grace comes into the room wearing her school uniform with only one sock.

“I think I left my other sock at Dad’s,” Grace says.

“Check the laundry room,” Felicity tells her.

“Excuse me?” Bruce says.

“Sorry, I’m not talking to you,” Felicity tells him before pulling the phone away from her ear and turning back to Grace. “There should be a pair of your socks in the laundry room. If not, you can just wear your tights.”

“I don’t want to wear my tights. I hate my tights,” Grace says.

“Can you go see if you have socks before arguing with me about tights?” Felicity says.

Grace rolls her eyes, but hurries off in search of another sock.

“Sorry about that,” Felicity says, putting the phone to her ear.

“Is this a bad time?” Bruce asks.

“We are trying to get out the door for school,” she says, which causes him to laugh.

“What?” she asks, annoyed. He’s the one that called her at 7:30 in the morning. What did he expect? Most of the world is busy getting ready for school and work.

“I just find it funny that you think you and the rest of your team can take out The Council without my help while you can’t even get your kids out the door on time with two socks on their feet,” he says. “You need my help.”

Felicity’s jaw drops at the sheer audacity of him. Where does he get off questioning her parenting skills? Then, to insinuate that they can’t handle what’s to come simply because Grace lost a sock? It’s not even close to being the same thing.

“Goodbye Mr. Wayne,” she says.

“You’re not even going to wait for me to ask you to dinner first?” he asks.

She can’t tell if he’s being serious, or if he’s just trying to poke at her to see how she ticks, but either way, she doesn’t appreciate it.

She doesn’t dignify his comment with a response, she simply hangs up.

They manage to find Grace’s sock and make it out the door, only 10 minutes later than usual. She drops the girls off at school and heads into the office, all the while, going over and over Bruce’s words in her head. She wonders if he’s right. If they aren’t going to be enough to take on this ‘Council’ that has been behind all of these attacks. If they will just end up getting themselves killed. 

Bruce Wayne isn’t wrong. Her life is a mess. She’s been a mess for years. What makes her think that their fate will be any different than Supergirl’s? The Marvel Family? Green Lantern? What makes her think that she’ll be able to do any better than Ray Palmer had? 

It’s not like she hasn’t already failed once before. She’d gotten the new Team Arrow all killed because she’d been too caught up in her own drama to pay attention to the details. How is she going to keep Oliver, Digg, Thea, and Roy from meeting the same fate? 

“What’s wrong?” Anna asks the second Felicity steps onto the executive floor. “You look miserable.” 

“Nothing,” Felicity says, quickly shaking all her negative thoughts out so that she can focus on work. “What’s the plan for today?” 

“You have a meeting with Mr. Sanchez at 9 to check on the progress of the Fusion Reactor and review security. Then Curtis wanted to schedule some time with you to discuss potential new projects,” Anna says. “I told him you were free from 10-12. At noon, you’ve got a meeting with the PR department. Then you’ve got that board meeting scheduled at 2.” 

Felicity groans. “I hate board meetings.” 

“I know,” Anna says. “Which is why at precisely 3, Andy has gotten the fire department to come for a spontaneous fire drill.” 

Felicity laughs at that. “And how did Andy manage that?” 

“He’s dating a firefighter, didn’t he tell you?” Anna asks. “She’s actually really pretty. You should ask him to show you a picture.” 

“If it lasts longer than a month, I will,” she says.

“Well it’s already been 3 weeks and 8 dates,” Anna says. 

“8 dates? Wow. That’s impressive,” she says. “Good for him.” 

At least somebody in the office is getting laid, she thinks, but thankfully doesn’t say it out loud. 

Felicity spends a few more minutes making small talk before she heads into her office to get some work done. 

She pulls up her computers and begins running a search on The Council, wanting to get a jump start on what will likely take hours. Once she is satisfied that her programs will run without her, she switches back to her company email and tries to catch up on some work. She’s gotten behind ever since joining up with Team Arrow again. She’d forgotten how much work it takes to balance two incredibly demanding jobs. 

There’s several emails from various department heads complaining about needing more funding for whatever new endeavor they have planned for the company. What else is new. She flags them to review later with accounting when they discuss their budget next week. A couple of emails from PR, asking her to speak at various events in order to boaster the company image. And one lone email from Lucius Fox that is titled, “For Your Eyes Only.” 

Felicity glances around the room. Not that she expects any to be in her office without her knowing it, but one never knows. She’s certainly been caught up in her work before and was startled to look up and find a janitor in front of her on more than one occasion. 

Satisfied she’s alone, she opens the email. 

As soon as she does, all three of her screens get taken over and begin flickering. If she didn’t know Lucius Fox, she would think that she’d opened a virus. But she does, so she simply waits it out to see what it is that he’s shared with her. 

Then the videos start playing and the pictures begin flashing across her screen. 

The terrorist attack in Berlin, 5 years ago. 

Mug shots of various criminals, apparently all associated with The Council. 

A video of Christopher Eastbrooks in his prison cell going on and on about watching the city burn. 

Newspaper articles of various murders over the last 5 years. All unsolved. All apparently linked to The Council in some way. 

There are emails, more videos, signed affidavits, coroner's reports, banking statements, eyewitness testimony, flight manifests… 

There’s literally hours upon hours of information of various crimes in front of her, that all apparently link together somehow. That all tie back to The Council. 

And that’s when she sees it. The picture of the suspected leader of The Council. His name is Johan Brownstein, according to the research Mr. Fox has given her. But Felicity knows him by another name: Uncle JoJo. 

The man had spent nearly every other dinner at her house growing up. He was a business partner of her father’s. The two of them were childhood friends. 

Which can only mean… 

“Frack,” she says. This can’t be happening. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments mean the world to me! Let me know what you think is going to happen; What parts you're enjoying the most; etc.


	11. All Things Fall Apart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity finally learns who had her kidnapped in 2021. Meanwhile, in 2026, The Final Order begins attacking Jewish community members openly again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Emisfritish for the super quick beta job! You're the best!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**_2021_ **

_ “I’ve missed you so much,” Oliver tells her, and it warms her heart. Just the sound of his voice alone gives her more peace than she’s had in weeks. _

_ “It can’t possibly be as much as I missed you,” she says, feeling herself getting teary eyed. “I thought that I wasn’t…” _

_ She trails off as she looks around the room at all 8 men she’d managed to kill in her attempt to escape, including the man that had almost strangled her to death. Her. Felicity. The blonde IT girl who couldn’t even carry the box of her summer shoes down from the attic without Oliver’s help. Who had the worst aim in the world. She’d taken out 8 men, all of whom looked about the same size as Oliver, if not bigger. Many of whom were sporting various military and/or gang tattoos. _

_ And that’s when it hits her suddenly. _

_ “What’s wrong?” Oliver asks. _

_ “I just realized… I took all of them out,” she says, still trying to piece together what all of this means. _

_ “Yeah. I know. I’m impressed. Good work,” Oliver says. _

_ The surprised tone in Oliver’s voice only confirms just how unlikely any of this was. That she could build a taser, fine. She’s been building computers since she was 7. Of course she’d be able to make a taser out of a disposable camera. But for her to take out 8 armed men and not have been shot once herself, even grazed? It wasn’t just unlikely… It was nearly impossible. _

_ Almost as if they hadn’t been trying to take her out. _

_ “No, you don’t understand,” she says, an urgent tone to her voice, begging him to catch onto what she’s already realized. This entire thing was a setup. “I took all of them out. They barely put up a fight. I don’t understand—” _

_ “Don’t complain,” Oliver cuts her off. “Anatoly has your location and will be there in 20 minutes to get you. You’re fine.” _

_ “Something’s wrong,” she says, refusing to let his words reassure her. He has no idea. She doesn’t know what is about to happen, but she just knows that her escape had been part of her captor’s plan all along. And she’s just played right into their hands. _

_ “No,” he says, his voice harsh. She knows he’s in denial. That he doesn’t want to believe that anything could happen after he’s just gotten her back. That he’s already beating himself up for not being there with her, to protect her, and the last thing he needs is for something else to happen to her. _

_ “20 minutes,” he says, his voice pleading. “Just hold off for 20 minutes. You can do that.” _

_ “Oliver…” she says, starting to feel frantic. She doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t want to be taken again, but she isn’t sure how to stop it. She needs him to tell her what to do. _

_ “Felicity, please,” he begs. “Please, just hold off until I get there. Until Anatoly’s men can get there.” _

_ She hears the sound of somebody clapping their hands and scrambles to her feet to turn and look at the person entering the room. When the man comes into the light and she is able to see his face for the first time. She gasps in shock. It’s her father. _

_ “Oliver,” she says into the phone, but the call has been disconnected. _

_ “The service in here really is awful. Somebody should look into that,” her father says, wearing the oddest smile. _

_ “Are you here to save me?” she asks, holding onto some naive hope that he’s not involved in this. That her father hasn’t dragged her to the other side of the world. That he hasn’t been part of a plot that got her mother stabbed, put her children in danger, and kidnapped her.  _

_ “Why would I be here to save you? It looks to me like you just saved yourself. Well done,” he says proudly. “I expected the disposable camera trick, which is why we left it there for you. But the carnage? Who knew you’d figure out how to shoot a gun. I’m impressed. As are the people I work for.” _

_ Felicity flinches as he mentions all the dead bodies around her. She glances around the room at all of the blood, bullet casings, and lifeless bodies. She’d done that. It was all her. And for what? All so she could play right into her kidnapper’s hands. _

_ Felicity feels sick. She’s never taken a life before, not directly. She may have helped Oliver take a few lives back in their early days, but this is different. This was her own doing. Her own hands that fired the gun. And she hadn’t just killed one man. She’d killed 8. _

_ And worst of all, that fact somehow makes her father proud? It’s disgusting. _

_ She can’t stay here. Not with him. They’ve already made her into a murderer and she’ll be damned if she sticks around to see what they’ll have her do next. She reaches down to grab the gun she’d dropped once she killed the last man and thought she was safe. Before her hands can close around it, the gun goes flying across the floor to the wall farthest from her, along with every other gun in the room. _

_ “Electromagnet,” her dad says, holding up a small device. _

_ He looks at her, like he’s waiting for some kind of congratulations. Like she’s going to be proud of him for thinking to install an electromagnet to prevent her from being able to grab a gun and raise her body count to 9. _

_ Her eyes scan around the room, looking for another escape apart from the single set of stairs that her father is currently blocking. She sees none. _

_ “Klara—” _

_ “Don’t call me that!” she yells. “My name is Felicity!” _

_ “I rather thought we had grown past this stage in our relationship,” he says, looking at her like a petulant child. _

_ She lets out a disbelieving laugh, “You thought that I… How could you ever think that we would be okay after you had me kidnapped? On what planet would that ever be okay? What happened to wanting to rebuild our relationship. I guess that was all a lie?” _

_ The fact that she’d ever allowed herself to share meals with this man in the hope of reconciliation leaves her feeling like an idiot. How had she let him back into her life? What on Earth made her think she could trust him again? Her mother had tried to warn her, why hadn’t she listened? _

_ “On the contrary,” he says, with a smile. “I very much want to rebuild our relationship. I want us to work together.” _

_ “And just asking for help seemed like a crazy idea to you so you decided to have me kidnapped instead?” Felicity says. “Um, no thanks. I think I’ll pass on working with Satan.” _

_ “Kidnapping you wasn’t part of the original plan, I’ll admit,” he says. “But when The Final Order attacked you, we had to improvise.” _

_ What does he mean when The Final Order attacked her? Isn’t he part of The Final Order? They’d tried to attack her in the loft, but then when that hadn’t worked, they’d kidnapped her. _

_ “Don’t you work for The Final Order?” she asks, completely confused. _

_ “Do I work for a terrorist group that is set on committing genocide against all Jews?” he asks, giving her an unamused look. _

_ Finding out that she hasn’t been taken by The Final Order should be a relief, but it’s not. At least with The Final Order, she’d known why they were taking her. She has no idea who’s taken her now or why. _

_ “Who do you work for?” she asks, trying to keep the fear out of her voice. She imagines that showing any kind of weakness in front of her father would be a bad idea. _

_ “I work for a group of people who want to stop terrorism and violence against our people,” he says. _

_ He takes a step towards her but she shuffles backwards until her back hits the wall. She doesn’t want him anywhere near her. She’ll be damned if she lets him touch her. _

_ “You know that kidnapping me is violence against your people, right?” she says, trying to keep him talking long enough to come up with an escape plan. Or for Anatoly’s men to show up. The feminist in her is not too proud to admit that she’s counting down the minutes until somebody comes and rescues her. _

_ “The violence against you was only done when you failed to cooperate,” her father says. “Or hadn’t you noticed that your kidnappers seemed light on the torture?” _

_ She spots a syringe tucked into one of the dead men’s belts and debates how quickly she could get to it before he could grab her. Perhaps, given the element of surprise, she can make it work... _

_ “You’re not going to get away with this,” she says, slowly moving to the right, closer to the dead man, in what she hopes just looks like an attempt to get farther away from her father. _

_ “Get away with what? Kidnapping you? I already have. Or do you still think that your husband is coming to save you?” _

_ Felicity freezes, putting his words together in her mind. _

_ If they had planned for her to try and escape… If they’d left the disposable camera for her to find… If they’d let her take out 8 men… There’s no way that they hadn’t let her get a hold of a phone to call Oliver. And if her calling home was part of the plan, then what was that plan? What did they accomplish by letting her talk to Oliver, apart from letting him know her location and ensuring that he comes to rescue her? _

_ They want Oliver to come after her. _

_ Oh god. They want Oliver and she’s ensured that he arrives on a silver platter. _

_ “What have you done?” she asks through gritted teeth. _

_ “Nothing,” he says with a shrug. “Yet.” _

_ Angered at the thought of them doing something to hurt Oliver, she reaches down and grabs the syringe, running at her father full speed. She’s almost got the needle jammed into his neck when he grabs her wrist and twists it backwards painfully, until she feels it pop. The pain is blinding, but still, she doesn’t let go of the syringe. It’s the only weapon she has against him and she can’t let it go. _

_ Instead, he spins her around until her back is to his chest and uses his free hand to hold her in place. _

_ “You're strong. That's good,” he says into her ear, barely affected by her sudden outburst of rage. “You're going to need it for your second trial.” _

_ “Second trial?” she asks, trying to break free from his grasp at the same time as she’s trying to make sense of his words. _

_ “You didn't think this was it, did you?” he asks. _

_ “This was… This was a test?!” _

_ Her eyes have started to water from the pain in her wrist, but that doesn’t stop her from yanking her arm down, desperate to get her hand back so that she can use the syringe against him. It’s her only chance of getting out of here. She has no intention of sticking around to find out what this ‘second trial’ is supposed to be. _

_ “Of which you passed with flying colors. And a good two weeks earlier than we expected,” he says, his voice filled with pride. _

_ “Screw you,” she says, thrashing back and forth, trying everything she can to break free. She feels a sliver of hope when he seems to loose his grip around her waist, but before she can step out of his arms, he forces her arm around and the needle goes straight into her chest. _

_ She looks down in sickening fear as he presses on the plunger and the unknown substance goes into her body. _

_ “When you wake up, Klara, just try to remember that I’m doing this for your own good,” he says. _

_ Her tongue won’t move, so she can’t protest. Can’t curse his name and tell him exactly what she thinks of him, like she’d like to. Her vision starts to blur and her knees feel weak. She can’t do anything but watch as he lowers her to the floor gently. She can’t push him off as he kisses her sweetly on the top of her head. _

_ “I love you,” he tells her. _

_ It’s the last thing she remembers before blacking out.  _

_ **** _

**2026**

“Felicity?”

“I don’t want to talk about my kidnapping,” Felicity tells Allison.

“Okay, well what do you want to talk about?” Allison asks.

“Nothing,” she says a bit too harshly. She’s sure once she’s calmed down, she’ll look back and regret snapping at the woman. After all, she’s only doing her job.

“That can’t be true, now can it?” Allison says, kindly. “You showed up at the office without an appointment. Which, is completely fine, by the way. But I have to wonder what it is you’re doing here.”

In truth, Felicity’s not really sure what she’s doing here. Her next appointment isn’t for another five days. But she’s been spiraling ever since opening up that email from Lucius Fox and somehow she’d ended up here.

Had she come here of her own free will? Maybe Curtis had taken her here? This seems like a Curtis thing to do...

“I can’t talk about my time away, I can’t,” Felicity says firmly, knowing that the topic is going to come up sooner or later. “It’s too much. I don’t want to do it. I can’t. I won’t.”

“Okay,” Allison says. “Why don’t you try breathing. Do it with me. Deep breath in. Hold for 1, 2. Exhale out slowly. 1. 2. Again…”

“I don’t pay you for breathing exercises!” Felicity yells. She’s shaking. She can hardly see straight she’s so panicked. She needs this feeling to stop.

It’s like she’s losing her mind.

Or having a heart attack.

Maybe she’s having a heart attack…

“You are not having a heart attack,” Allison says, and Felicity realizes that at least half of that must have been out loud. “You’re having a panic attack. The best thing for you to do is to try and breathe.”

“You try breathing when it feels like an elephant is sitting on your chest,” Felicity argues with her. “You have no idea. Oh my god, you have no idea what is happening. What’s about to happen. I can’t… I can’t just  _ breathe _ and this problem will disappear. You have no idea!”

Felicity closes her eyes, and all she can see is that picture of Uncle JoJo on her screen.

He can’t work for The Council. He just can’t. Because if he works for The Council, it means that the organization that had her kidnapped all those years ago is back. 

It’s back.

It’s back and it’s systematically taking out major cities.

It’s back and it’s killing superheroes.

It’s back and she’s not sure if there is any way to stop what’s to come.

“Felicity, what is The Council?” Allison asks her.

Frack. Had she said that out loud? This is why vigilantees aren’t supposed to go to therapy.

“Nobody. Nothing. Forget I said anything. I have to go,” she says quickly, moving to stand up.

Allison moves in front of the door to block her way.

“I don’t feel comfortable letting you leave in your current state,” Allison says. “If you aren’t comfortable talking to me. That’s fine. But please stay until you’re at least calmed down.”

Felicity sits back down on the couch, because Allison is probably right. The last thing she needs to do is be seen walking around the city looking like a crazy person while she has this panic attack. She accepts the glass of water that Allison hands her, but can’t drink it. Her hands are shaking too much. 

Just when she’s starting thinking that maybe she might be able to get past what happened to her during her time away… Just when she’s started to consider letting go of everything that happened with her father… Just when she’s taken steps to heal and move on… The organization that destroyed her entire life has come back. 

Nothing will ever be alright again. The most she can hope for is that nobody she cares about dies this time around. Felicity will do anything in her power to make sure that doesn’t happen. She had to protect her family from the deranged psychopaths who believe world peace can only come through acts of terror. 

Somehow, she needs to pull herself together and find a way to be strong again. 

She needs to learn to be in control of her own emotions. 

“Exactly what does doctor-patient confidentiality cover?” Felicity asks, unable to meet Allison’s eyes. 

****

**_2021_ **

_ The first thing Oliver becomes aware of is the glaring sun that creates a bright red glow behind his eyelids. The next thing is the sharp rocks digging into his back and the sand beneath him. For a second, he thinks that he’s back on the island and has fallen asleep on the beach somehow. But his mind quickly catches up with him as he remembers the last place he was. _

_ Russia. _

_ He’d been with Digg in Russia trying to find Felicity. _

_ Oliver’s eyes shoot open and he sits up, taking in the desert landscape around him. There’s nothing and no one for miles. He’s never pretended to be an expert at geography, but he’s pretty sure he’s not in Russia anymore. At least, no part of Russia he’s ever seen. _

_ He’s less worried about where he is and more worried about where Digg is. He’ll never forgive himself if something awful happened to Digg and he’d been unable to stop it. _

_ “John!” he calls out loudly. “Digg!” _

_ Nothing. No reply. _

_ He reaches into his pockets for his phone, but finds it has been taken from him. In it’s place is a small metal object and a folded piece of paper. He pulls both objects out of his pocket. The first is a compass. The second is a map of the Middle East with a hand-drawn star not far from the Euphrates River and a penciled in, ‘You are here.’ _

_ Here, is Syria. Oliver is in Syria. _

_ Terrified of what that means, he quickly does a full sweep, looking for any sign of life. He finds none. It’s a blessing and a curse. No sign of life means that he’s not in any immediate danger, but it also means there’s nobody to help him. Nobody to tell him if John is safe. Nobody to tell him if he’s been taken closer to Felicity or farther away... _

_ What kind of drug did they give him that he hadn’t noticed somebody transporting him out of the country. The only person who’s ever managed to do that before was Waller, and she’s dead. Lyla is the head of ARGUS now and he hardly thinks she’s responsible for his current predicament. _

_ No, whoever took Felicity is responsible for him finding his way to Syria. Oliver has no idea what to do from here. _

_ Of all the places to find himself in, Syria is one of the last places he’d choose. For starters, there is no way he, as an American, will be welcome here. If he’s caught, he’ll be lucky not to be executed. And even if that wasn’t his greatest concern, Oliver’s never been to the Middle East. Tommy and he had a trip to Dubai planned several years ago, but they’d never made it thanks to the Gambit sinking. And Syria? Hardly Dubai. Even if he can find his way to civilization and avoid execution, how is he supposed to navigate his way back to Star City? _

_ Oliver has no money on him and he doesn’t know Arabic. What little he’d learned from the league started with how to pronounce everyone’s names and ended with him memorizing that awful murder prayer Ra’s taught him. He doesn’t know how to read it. Nor will he know how to ask for things like, “airport” or “telephone” if he can find any friendly locals. _

_ And if he can’t find his way back to civilization, he’s screwed. It’s not as if his team is going to come looking for him. Oh, they’ll look. They’ll scour the Earth for him, but as far as they know, his last known location was in Russia. The last place he’s been seen alive is thousands of miles away. _

_ This is pretty much Oliver’s worst case scenario. At least if he were stuck in the middle of nowhere China, he’d know the language. Here, he’s helpless.  _

********

**2026**

Oliver stands in Lance’s living room staring at bloody crime scene photos from the night before as a beat cop goes over the details of the Levin family murder. The police aren’t ready to attribute the bloody murders of Andrew, Sarah, and their three young children to The Final Order just yet, but the evidence is damning. 

“We’re not supposed to be telling anyone. The chief is worried it will cause a widespread panic,” the officer informs them. 

“Then why are you showing us this?” Oliver asks, causing the officer to squirm in his seat. 

He’s not wrong. It’s been years since The Final Order went on a murderous rampage throughout the city that lasted months and killed over a hundred Jewish community members. During that time, people were terrified. Families were scared to worship for fear of being identified as Jewish. Hundreds fled the city for fear of being murdered in their own beds. The ones brave enough to stay, were forced to sleep with one eye open, constantly looking over their shoulders for oncoming threats. It seemed like nobody was safe. 

Oliver gets the police’s hesitancy to go public with the information that The Final Order is back. Not when they only have one murdered family to attribute it to. For all the SCPD know, it could be a copycat killing. Oliver knows better. He knows it’s The Final Order, but the police don’t. Not yet. 

So Oliver gets it. What he doesn’t understand is why this beat cop decided to break rank and come to Lance with the information. 

“Captain Lance saved my life during the Siege, and I knew that he would want to know if his family was potentially in danger again,” the officer asks. 

“Thank you, McCarthy,” Lance says. “I appreciate it.” 

“Of course, Sir,” the officer, McCarthy, says. The two men shake hands and Lance shows him to the door. 

The second the door is closed, Oliver collapses on top of the couch with a deep sigh. 

“I know you all said that The Order was back, but I thought that…” Lance starts to say but trails off. “I guess I thought maybe we’d catch them before they started murdering families again.” 

“We should have stopped this,” Oliver says, punching the pillow on the couch in frustration. “If we just knew where to look.” 

“Still no leads?” Lance asks. 

“Nothing that leads to anything worthwhile,” Oliver tells him. “How are we supposed to protect the people of this city if we can’t even figure out where the bad guys are hiding?” 

“I can ask around, talk to some friends who are still in the force. See if anyone knows anything else,” Lance suggests. 

“Do it,” he says. “At this point, we’ll take anything. We just need something to go on so we can stop these guys before things get out of control again. That cop was right. If people find out that The Final Order is back, there will be widespread panic.” 

“You don’t think that they’d go after Donna and the kids again, do you?” Lance asks, a worried look on his face. 

“I think if they have the opportunity, they’ll for sure go after them again,” he says. “They’ve already targeted me with that stunt at City Hall. Between wanting to get back at me for my role taking them down the first time and with Felicity high profile status as CEO of Palmer Tech, targeting any one of the girls would be excellent publicity for their cause.” 

“Oliver, we’ve gotta protect them,” Lance says. “Donna, Felicity, and your girls. Whatever it takes.” 

Oliver nods in agreement. 

If there’s one thing he knows for sure, it’s that he’ll be damned if he lets The Final Order anywhere near his family. 

****

**_2021_ **

_ The sound of a motor running and two men speaking Yiddish drags Felicity out of her slumber. Her arms are tingling painfully from being bound and chained to something. She opens her eyes to see that she’s been chained to a metal bar in the back of a van with no windows. Next to her, her father is looking at her with a warm smile that in no way matches the situation. _

_ She wants to punch him in his face, but she can’t with the way her hands are bound. _

_ “Where are you taking me?” She asks, doing her best to sound demanding, but it’s hard when she’s still caught under the fog of whatever drug he’d given her. _

_ “You’ll see soon enough,” he informs her, patting her on her leg in what is probably supposed to be a reassuring gesture. It only serves to make her skin crawl. He has no right to touch her. Not after what he’s done. _

_ Felicity pulls at her chains, knowing that it will do no use, but she has to at least try to escape. The metal pulls on her already broken wrist, causing her to cry out in pain. _

_ “Careful,” her father says in a patronizing tone. “I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.” _

_ Felicity feels a rage growing inside of her that is a million times worse than the rage she’d felt when she first discovered she’d been kidnapped. At least then, she could understand the purpose of it. The Final Order has a problem with Jewish people. She is Jewish. Ergo… _

_ This? Being kidnapped by her own father, who claims to have done so for her own good? It introduces a level of rage that she previously had only reserved for men like Malcolm Merlyn, Ra’s al Ghul, and Damien Darhk. _

_ “Don’t pretend you give a damn,” she snarls. _

_ Felicity’s feet are miraculously unchained, so she pulls them up onto the seat and begins kicking him with everything she has in her. He groans as her feet make contact with his side and she’s filled with a feeling of deep satisfaction that she can make him feel even a sliver of the pain he’s put her though over the last few weeks. _

_ The man sitting in the passenger side seat turns around, gun in his hand, aimed at her. She freezes. _

_ The man speaks to her in Yiddish, a language she hasn't heard since she was a kid. She can't piece together everything he's saying, but it's something about sleep. He wants to put her to sleep? _

_ Her father responds to the man, also in Yiddish. He's asking him to do something. Whatever it is, the man looks intent on shooting her. Felicity closes her eyes and prays for her family’s safety. If death is about to come, she needs to know her family will be alright. That if she has to die, Oliver will live to take care of the girls. _

_ “Drop the weapon,” her father orders, this time in English. “She’s not to be harmed.” _

_ “I’ve already been harmed!” Felicity yells at him, ignoring every lesson she's ever gotten from Digg to remain calm and not anger her kidnapper. _

_ She may have been able to do so before, but not now that she knows who's taken her. Not now that her own father has betrayed her. She can't pretend anymore. She can't cover up her rage, even if it means sacrificing her comfort and safety. She's far too angry. _

_ “You took me from my home. You took me away from my children, one of whom was still nursing! You stabbed my mother! I ache everywhere from the beatings I’ve taken. I’ve  _ already been harmed _!” _

_ “Drop the weapon,” her father repeats, completely ignoring her angry tirade. _

_ The man in front of her complies, though he doesn't look happy about it. She moves to kick her father again, but he grabs her legs roughly and holds them tight, so she can’t move. _

_ “You can fight me all you want, Klara, but I’m not the enemy here,” he says. _

_ “I don’t see anyone else holding me hostage,” Felicity says. _

_ “You’re not being held hostage,” her father says. “Hostage implies that we are waiting for the fulfillment of a condition and we’ll then let you go. The Final Order? They were planning on holding you hostage. We saved you from them. This is an initiation.”   _

_ “What do you mean initiation?” she asks, trying not to sound as scared as she feels. _

_ Any kind of initiation performed by a man as deranged as her father, can’t be good. Her apparent initiation has already led her to murdering 8 men. _

_ “It’s a requirement,” he says. “You’ve already proven yourself to me, but the people I work for need to see that you can handle what’s to come.” _

_ “And what’s to come?” she asks, trying to find out as much as she can about what’s happening. Perhaps, with enough information, she can find a way out of this situation. _

_ “Don’t worry, Sweetheart,” the man in the front seat says with a condescending laugh. “I’m sure the Green Arrow will come and save you before things get too rough. Either that, or the Syrians will grant you a quick death.” _

_ “Syrians? As in Syria?!” Felicity says, frantically, trying to move around again so that she can see out the front dashboard. “What happened to Russia?” _

_ “Oh Klara, do you really think that I’m foolish enough to hide you in the middle of a country run by the Bratva?” her father says. “Your mother would have had Anatoly’s men find you in a second.” _

_ “You’re lying,” she says. “The phone…” _

_ “Rerouted the call,” her father says with a shrug. As if sending Oliver to Russia on a wild goose chase was no big deal. _

_ What she can’t figure out is why Russia? Why did her father send Oliver to Russia of all places? And what is Oliver going to find when he gets there? _

_ “Where did you send him?” she asks, doing her best to glare a hole into his skull. _

_ “Don’t worry, if he’s really the hero you think he is, he’ll survive.” _

_ Felicity ignores the way the hair on the back of her neck stands up at the thought of what they have planned for Oliver. She has to have faith that whatever trap they’ve laid down, Oliver will be too smart — too skilled — to fall into it. He’ll come for her. He has to. _

_ “He’s going to find me and when he does, he’s going to kill you,” she practically spits at him. “And I won’t do anything to stop him.” _

_ “Oh Sweetheart—” _

_ “Don’t call me that! I’m not your sweetheart,” she says, thrashing around in anger. She manages to get one of her legs free from his hold and kicks him in the head. This time, the man in front of her turns around and hits her in the face with his pistol. _

_ She groans out in pain. _

_ “We’re here,” the driver says in Yiddish. That much, she can understand as the van slows to a stop. _

_ She tries to look out the dashboard again to see where exactly  _ here _ is, but her vision is swimming from the throbbing pain in her head. _

_ Behind her, the sliding door opens and a pair of rough hands unchain her. Before she can use her free arms to fight back, she’s grabbed and literally thrown out of the van. Felicity barely has time to register the desert around her as a bag is thrown at her and the door slides shut again. _

_ They are going to leave her here, she realizes. _

_ Felicity stands up and tries to open the door, but it’s locked. She bangs on the glass, but it does nothing. _

_ “You can’t leave me out here!” she yells. _

_ She doesn’t want to be anywhere near her father. She wants to be free, but she has a sinking feeling that  _ this? _ It’s not the kind of freedom she’s looking for. _

_ “I’m your daughter!” she yells, continuing to pound on the window until the sides of her hands start to throb. _

_ The door slides open and for a split second, Felicity thinks she’s gotten through to her father. That he’s changing his mind. Then she sees his face. Gone is any semblance of compassion. Gone are the loving looks he’d been giving her before. What’s left is pure, unbridled rage. _

_ “My daughter that won’t even take my name — your grandmother’s name? The one who refused to let me meet my grandchildren? The one who disgraced this family by marrying a Christian? The one that barely understands Yiddish anymore?” her father says. _

_ “Dad… Please...” she pleads, not even caring that she’s crying by now. She tries to crawl into the van, but he pushes her out. _

_ “Oh, it’s Dad now?” he says with a cold laugh. “Survive this Klara. Live past the second trial. Repent. Make your peace with God and then we can talk.” _

_ “Don’t do this,” she says through a terrified sob, putting her arm in the van to block him from shutting the door. He slams the door anyway and she screams out in pain. He doesn’t look even a little bit sorry. _

_ “Look out for the locals,” he says. “They’d just love to capture a good old American blonde. Makes you almost wish you’d kept your Jewish looks…” _

_ “If I die out here, you’ll never forgive yourself,” she says, holding her possibly broken arm to her chest. _

_ He doesn’t listen. Instead, the door is closed and the car starts to drive away. She runs after it screaming, but it’s no use. She’s not fast enough. _

_ Felicity falls to her knees and continues sobbing, not caring how weak she must look to the men who are very likely watching her out of the rear view mirror. _

_ She feels utterly betrayed. She’s been left in pain and more scared than she’s ever been in her life. She has no idea where she is. Only that she’s been left in the desert in Syria. Oliver is looking for her in the  _ wrong country _. Any chance of a rescue is gone. As if that weren’t enough, her head is spinning from where she’d been hit with that gun. Her arm is on fire. _

_ She pulls it away from her chest to inspect the damage. She can see right where the door had hit her by the mangled skin and blood. The bone is, without a doubt, broken. Thankfully, it’s her right arm. The arm that already had a broken wrist. If it had been her left, she’d be completely screwed. She’s right-handed, but she’ll adjust. She doesn’t have a choice. _

_ Felicity takes several deep breathes, trying to push down the pain she feels — both emotional and physical. Now is not the time to fall apart. This is another test and she needs to figure out what they have planned and how she is going to survive whatever is about to come. _

_ She uses her one good hand to push herself onto her feet and walks over to the bag they’d left her with. _

_ Inside, she finds a map with a note written in Hebrew. She can read the words with no problem. Thankfully, years of reading the Torah provides her with enough knowledge to understand the note is telling her to make her way to the mark on the map in order to find safety. The starred point is near the city of Deir ez-Zor. There’s nothing marking her current location. _

_ There’s a couple bottles of water and a few protein bars, enough to last her a day, perhaps more if she’s really careful. There’s a compass and a flashlight. And then, at the very bottom of the bag, there’s a gun. Whatever is coming, they want her to kill again. _

_ Felicity studies the area around her for any distinguishing features that may give her current location away. In the distance are what look like mountains… Or incredibly massive sand dunes? Felicity is a certified genius, but she’d hardly call herself an expert on the geography of Syria. Either way, there’s nothing to give away exactly which mountains/sand dunes she’s looking at. She could be a few miles from the point they want her to go to. She could be hundreds of miles… _

_ “And that’s if you’re even going to go to that point,” she says to herself. _

_ She’s caught in quite the dilemma. It’s not as if she can walk to the nearest city, say her name is Felicity Queen, and expect to be delivered home safely. Americans aren’t typically welcome in this part of the world and the political situation in Syria is delicate. The war may be over on paper, but that doesn’t mean much.  _

_ If she walks to the nearest city, she’ll likely be captured by an entirely different terrorist organization and she’ll be lucky if they only hold her hostage. More than likely, they’ll execute her publicly and make sure that the entire world has a front row seat. Felicity can’t take that risk. _

_ However, it’s not as if she can walk to the spot on the map and right back into her father’s hands. _

_ So that leaves her with very few options. If she can somehow get herself out of the country… Perhaps to Lebanon, Israel, or Turkey, she stands a chance. However, she has no idea how she’ll cross the border without getting caught. _

_ Still. It’s the only plan she can come up with. She’ll have to at least make it to a border and figure out what to do from there. _

_ For now, she has to orient herself on the map and figure out where in the hell they’ve dropped her.  _

********

**2026**

“Suit up,” Oliver says to Digg, Thea, and Roy as they enter the lair that afternoon. 

About an hour ago, an Amber Alert had been put out, stating that three 12 year old boys — Jeremiah Hirsch, Caleb Hayes, and Ben Pensak — had been kidnapped and the police were looking for an unmarked black van. Oliver had immediately headed out to begin working the case. He’d called everyone else in as well. Digg, Thea, and Roy had all responded, but he’s yet to hear from Felicity. 

“It’s still light outside,” Thea points out.

“I don’t care,” Oliver says. “We are finding those boys and getting them home.”

Just moments ago, Eva Pensak had gone on Channel 2 news crying, begging for the safe return of her son. Oliver can’t even imagine… He knows how desperate he had been when Felicity had been taken. He can only imagine how much worse he would have felt if it had been one of his daughters who’d gone missing. 

The boys are all in 6th grade and have been preparing for their Bat Mitzvah together. They’d been on their way home from their synagogue earlier when they were pulled into an unmarked van. Several witnesses had seen it happen, but nobody had been able to stop it. The police were called immediately, but by the time they arrived, it was too late. The boys haven’t been seen or heard from since. With every passing hour, the likelihood of finding them alive decreases. 

It’s not hard for Oliver to put himself in those parent’s shoes. His daughters are Jewish. Ella is registered to start religious school next year. Grace has been going every Thursday for the last 2 years. The synagogue the girls attend is only 4 blocks from Felicity’s place. He can totally see himself and Felicity allowing the girls to walk to and from school alone once Grace reaches 6th grade. 

The situation that the Hirsch, Hayes, and Pensak families find themselves in right now, could just as easily happen to his family. 

But Oliver can’t focus on the what if’s right now. He has to find these boys. The Final Order reigned down enough terror on Star City their first time around, he’s not going to let them do it a second time. 

“Oliver, I’m all for finding these kids and stopping The Order, but do we even have a lead?” John asks him, following Oliver over to the glass cases that house their suits. 

“Lance said that the police think they’ve narrowed their location down to a 10 block radius in the Glades. We’ll start there and once Felicity gets here, hopefully she can work her magic and give us something more to go on,” Oliver says. 

“Where is Blondie?” Roy asks. 

Oliver’s been asking himself that same question for the last hour. Felicity is never far from her phone, even during meetings. Even when she’s been at her angriest with him, she never ignores his messages in case it has something to do with the girls. He’s been worried about what he could have done to piss her off so badly that she’d refuse to pick up her phone, but maybe that was the wrong thing to worry about. 

What if something more sinister has happened to her? It wouldn’t be the first time The Final Order has gone after Felicity...

Oliver begins to work himself into a panic before Thea puts a soothing hand on his shoulder. 

“You three go look for these boys. I’ll go check on Felicity. I’m sure she’s fine,” she says, reassuringly. 

“What if—” 

“Stop,” Thea cuts Oliver off before his anxiety gets bad enough that he decides to forget all about the missing boys and instead, use all of his resources to find his wife.

_ Ex _ -wife, he reminds himself, bitterly. She’s not his anymore, which only serves to make things worse. When was the last time he’d actually seen her? Yesterday morning when he’d dropped the girls off? 

She can’t have been missing  _ that _ long without him knowing about it. No. He’d texted with her back and forth yesterday from work several times. Then he’d heard her voice in the background when he’d called Grace and Ella last night to wish them sweet dreams. She had to have at least gotten the girls to school today, because he hasn’t heard from the school to inform him of any unexpected absences and Grace would most certainly call him if her mother went missing. 

That still left 8 hours unaccounted for… 

“I’m going to check on her,” Oliver says, throwing his suit carelessly on the ground and turning to leave. 

Thea grabs his arm to stop him. 

“I already told you that I would check on her,” Thea says. “Go get these boys, if The Final Order has taught us anything, it’s that they don’t have much time.  _ They _ need you. I’m sure Felicity is just caught up with something and hasn’t heard her phone go off.” 

Oliver doesn’t feel comfortable with this plan, but he also knows that he’s probably just being overly paranoid and that he can’t let 3 helpless kids die simply because he’s letting his nightmares get the better of him right now. 

“You call me the second you get to her office — whether she’s there or not,” he says, giving her a serious look so that she knows he’s not joking around. 

“I promise,” Thea says. “Keep to the shadows. Sunset won’t be for another hour and I don’t think we’d be able to explain it away if you get caught in your masks.” 

“We’ll be safe,” Roy says, kissing her on her cheek. 

Thea heads off to look for Felicity while the rest of them quickly change. 

It’s not the best idea going out in the middle of the day wearing their masks. They’d be less conspicuous looking for the boys in their day clothes. However, Oliver thinks it’s more risky to reveal their identities to The Final Order than it would be getting arrested by the police. At least with the police, they’d get a fair trial. The Final Order hates Oliver enough without knowing he’s also the Green Arrow. The last thing they need is the terrorist organization knowing the names of the vigilantes that brought them down last time. It’d put all of their families at risk. 

Once they are changed, Oliver and Roy each hop on their motorcycles while Digg grabs the van. They make their way to the area the police believe the boys are being held, doing their best to stay out of the public eye. They pass several cars through and at least one police car. He knows that the police officer notices the masked vigilantes driving by, because he meets Oliver’s eyes as he drives past. It’s a mark of how the city’s relationship with masks has changed over the years that the police officer chooses to ignore them. 

“We’re going to have to park several blocks away,” Digg says over the coms. “Police have set up a perimeter around the entire 10 block radius. I’m not sure yet how we’ll even get past them.” 

“We could try the roof,” Roy suggests. 

“Maybe that would work at night, but it won’t work during the day,” Oliver says. “They’ll see us.” 

“Well if we can’t go over, and we can’t go through…” Digg starts to say, and Oliver knows exactly where he’s going with this. 

“We’ll have to go under. Is there an old subway line anywhere close to where we want to be?” he asks. 

“I’ll have to pull out a map,” Digg says. “Damnit, this is why we need somebody working the coms back at the lair.” 

The comment only serves to remind Oliver that Felicity is currently MIA. His stomach is in knots and just the thought that anything could happen to her makes him want to vomit. 

“Thea should be getting to Palmer Tech any minute. I’m sure we’ll have an update soon,” Roy says, clearly understanding where Oliver’s mind is at. 

His only reply is a grunt. He won’t be reassured until he hears Felicity’s voice tell him herself that she’s okay. 

They pull into a nearly empty parking garage a couple blocks away and park in a dark corner as far away from any light as possible. Oliver moves on autopilot, his body completely aware of the mission at hand, while his mind is reliving the events of Felicity’s kidnapping. Of the horrible phone call from Lance letting him know that the girls had been attacked. That Felicity was missing. 

“It looks like there’s an old station at 5th and Wicker which would put us inside the blockade and hopefully far enough away to avoid being seen,” Digg says, showing them the map of the old subway line. “If we go back a few blocks east, we can use the Fenley station to access the line. It’s probably a 20 minute walk from there.” 

“Sounds good,” Roy says. 

They both look to Oliver for confirmation and his only response is to nod. 

They have just jumped the fence warning against trespassing at the abandoned subway station when Thea’s voice can be heard over the line. 

“Felicity’s not at Palmer Tech,” she says. “I guess she left here really upset sometime this morning and Anna hasn’t heard from her since.”

“Upset about what?” Oliver asks, feeling himself start to panic. Felicity never leaves work. Not unless there’s a legitimate emergency. He would have heard about it if something had happened with Grace or Ella. He’s spoken with Lance only an hour or so ago, so he would have heard if something had happened with Donna. 

“Anna didn’t know. I’m going to go check the apartment,” Thea tells them. “Perhaps she’s just curled up in bed with some ice cream and Netflix and doesn’t feel like answering the phone.” 

“Okay, but why would she be so upset she wouldn’t answer the phone?” Oliver asks, growing more and more agitated. “I’ve called several times. She would at least pick up to make sure it’s not an emergency.” 

“Let’s not freak out until I get to her place, okay?” Thea says. 

It’s sound advice which he promptly ignores. 

And if he can’t go pounding down every door in town looking for Felicity yet, he’ll settle for beating every last Order member he can find into a bloody pulp. 

“Oliver, you need to take a breath,” Digg tells him. 

“What I need is to find those boys,” Oliver says, charging ahead. He doesn’t have to see them, to know that Roy and Digg are giving each other concerned looks. 

“I’m fine,” Oliver says, when neither of them seem to be following him anymore. “Let’s focus on the mission at hand.” 

****

“What’s wrong?” Allison asks Felicity when she’s finally getting ready to leave her office later on that afternoon. It’s nearly 6pm. Felicity has spent 8 hours in her therapist’s office today. She doesn’t even want to know what that bill is going to look like. 

“Everyone told me I’d feel better,” Felicity admits, realizing that the only thing she feels is exhaustion. She’s emotionally drained and her head is pounding. 

“What do you mean?” Allison asks, folding her hands on her desk and giving Felicity her full attention. 

It’s been 8 hours. 8 hours of unplanned time together in which Felicity had shown up in the middle of a full blown panic attack. 8 hours in which she’d started to open up about her kidnapping, until it caused her to hysterically cry. She’d spent 3 of those hours sleeping on the woman’s couch. And when she’d woken up, she hadn’t gone home. They’d talked for another 3 hours. 

Allison should be upset with her. She’s had to rearrange her entire schedule in order to accommodate for Felicity. There’s no reason that she should still be looking at her with such patience and understanding, but she is. 

“My friends,” Felicity says. “They told me if I talked to somebody about what happened, that I’d feel better.” 

“And you don’t?” Allison asks, giving her a knowing smile. 

Felicity shakes her head, biting her lip, trying to figure out if that means she’s really as hopeless a case as she’d once thought. 

“It’s been 5 years since you were kidnapped. For all of those 5 years, you’ve been repressing everything you’ve felt. For most patients, confronting long repressed emotions for the first time can be difficult. Things might feel like they are getting worse while you sort through everything. But I can assure you, if you keep opening up the way you have today, things will eventually start to get better.” 

“The only way out is through,” Felicity says, repeating something she’s heard Oliver say to her before. 

“Something like that,” Allison says. “I’ve gone ahead and prescribed you some medication that I think will help you with some of your anxiety.” 

Felicity takes the prescription with a promise to at least give the meds a try, then she leaves the office. 

When she gets to the street, she pulls her phone out of her pocket and turns it back on, surprised to see that she has 48 missed calls, almost all of them from Oliver and Thea. 

She freezes as she feels her stomach drop to the floor. She’d been so consumed with grief, worry, and genuine panic over discovering that The Council was the same organization that kidnapped her, that she hadn’t even stopped to think about the fact that her family might be in immediate danger. 

She picks up the phone and calls Oliver, but he doesn’t answer, John does. 

“Where are you? Get back to the lair now!” he yells, his voice frantic. 

Something awful has happened. 

“What’s wrong? Where’s Oliver?” she asks. 

“Oliver’s been shot,” John tells her and Felicity’s entire world stops.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments mean the world to me! I love hearing what you think is coming! It keeps me motivated!


	12. A Faint Light

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in updating, I was sick last weekend and couldn't get it out. But great news, I graduate in 2 weeks and then I'll have a whole summer of nothing to do but write! 
> 
> Special thanks as always to Emisfritish!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

 

**_2021_ **

_ There was a time, not terribly long ago, that Oliver wouldn’t have feared death. In fact, many people have accused him more than once of chasing death down. It’s not exactly untrue. There have been several moments in his life that he would have welcomed death — begged for it, even. _

_ As he walks through the desert with no sign of life in sight, he knows things are different now. _

_ He has 2 beautiful daughters waiting for him back home. There are 2 little girls who are depending on him coming home. He’d promised Grace he would return. His last words to her had been a promise that he doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to keep. Her last memory of him will be a lie. _

_ As if that isn’t bad enough, Felicity is still somewhere out there, alone and scared, waiting for him to save her. _

_ So, no. Oliver refuses to die out here in the middle of the desert. _

_ He looks down at the map again and prays he’s making the right choice trying to cross the border into Iraq. He doesn’t know what he’s been brought to Syria for, but he has enough life experience to know it can’t be anything good. Either they’ve brought him closer to Felicity or farther away, but regardless, he needs a plan. He needs access to a phone line to contact his team. He needs somebody who can tell him where Felicity is. He needs weapons and backup. _

_ Oliver knows he can’t trust any of the locals to help him. It’s too big of a wildcard and he can’t afford the loss of time getting kidnapped would cause. His first choice would be to find an ARGUS base. He knows there has to be one somewhere in this part of the world, but that’s not information he’s going to easily find. What Oliver does know, is that there are US military bases in Iraq and soldiers that patrol the country. If he can get to them, he knows they’ll protect him long enough to get in touch with his team and re-group. _

_ He just has to keep putting one foot in front of the other and continue heading west. That’s the only thing he needs to focus on right now. That’s the only thing he can focus on right now if he wants to stop himself from being so overwhelmed with grief and fear that he gives up. _

_ So Oliver replays every inspirational speech Felicity and John have ever given him and continues walking. _

_ **** _

**2026**

“Oliver?!” Felicity yells, out of breath as she runs into the lair.

She’s desperate. She has to see him. She has to make sure that he’s going to be okay. Felicity’s used to Oliver getting hurt by now, but this time it’s bad. This time Digg had legitimately sounded worried. Like he wasn’t sure if Oliver would survive.

Felicity’s entire world came crashing down in a single phone call. The day has been hard enough with her discovering what she has about The Council and then spending all day with Allison, but it has nothing on the news that the man she’s loved for close to 14 years is hurt. It has nothing on the fear that she may lose Oliver.

After everything she’s been through, she knows she’s strong. However, she won’t be strong enough to survive Oliver’s death.

“Over here!” Roy calls out from the main room.

Felicity rushes in.

She can’t hold back her terrified gasp when she sees Oliver laying on the med table, Roy, Thea, and John surrounding him. Roy is covered in blood and has his hands on Oliver’s side, trying to stop the bleeding. John is moving around the table quickly, trying to set up surgical supplies and prepare Oliver for a makeshift surgery that will hopefully be able to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding before he dies. Meanwhile, Thea is trembling and obviously trying to hold back tears while she hangs up a blood bag and prepares Oliver for a blood transfusion. 

“What the hell happened?” Felicity asks as she shoves off her coat and tosses it to the side, too focused on Oliver to care about where it lands. 

“Hey,” Oliver says, his voice too faint to convince her he’s alright.

It’s not until Thea finally steps aside that she’s able to see his face. He’s still awake, but the goofy smile and half-lidded eyes tell her that he’s only barely with them. She prays that’s because John’s already administered the pain meds and not because Oliver’s lost so much blood that he’s stopped feeling much of anything. 

“Hey,” she says back with a watery smile. She moves to help Thea with the IV, but Oliver reaches out for her arm and pulls her closer. 

“We’ll get some blood in you and John will stitch you up,” Felicity explains, every bit as much for her own benefit as his own. “You’ll be fine.”

She tries to pull away again to help Thea, who is trembling so badly that she’s not likely to ever get the IV in, but Oliver won’t let her go. 

“You’re safe,” he says, and his voice is filled with such relief.

“Of course I’m safe,” she says, looking at him in confusion.

Why wouldn’t she be safe? He is the one that is bleeding out in the basement of a Japanese restaurant.

“Where have you been all day?” he asks, his speech starting to slur.

Felicity looks up to meet John’s eyes, and she can see he’s just as worried about Oliver’s deteriorating condition as she is.

“We’ve gotta get blood in him, now,” John says.

Felicity nods, and tries to pull her arm back, but Oliver only holds on tighter. The amount of strength he still has even when he’s nearly unconscious is surprising.

“You’ve gotta let me help you,” Felicity says, but he doesn’t let her go.

“Don’t leave,” he says, this time his words are barely understandable, but they hit her like a punch to the gut.

“I’m not leaving,” she says, leaning down to whisper into his ear, using her one free hand to run her fingers through his hair. “I’m right here. I won’t leave.”

“You weren’t here,” he barely manages to get out before he starts coughing up blood.

“Digg…” Thea says in a warning tone. 

By this point, Thea has given up all pretenses of trying to get the IV in Oliver and is just holding the needle out for Felicity to do it. 

“I know!” John says. “I’m working on it. Felicity, he needs blood!”

She nods, comprehending his words, but she doesn’t move. She can’t move, not only because Oliver’s grip won’t allow it. They’ve been in this position before, more times than she cares to admit. Each time Oliver’s managed to pull through and come back to her. But what if this time he can’t? What if this time he dies and he does so with the memory that she wasn’t here for him? 

He’ll never know how much she still loves him. 

“Stay with us, Oliver. You’ve gotta stay with us,” she says, starting to cry.

“So happy you’re safe,” Oliver mumbles out and suddenly the grip on her arm loosens and his arm falls limp to the table as his eyes close.

“Oliver… Oliver!” Felicity cries out.

“No,” she cries. “No, no, no, no.”

She grabs the needle as quick as she can and wills her hands to stay steady long enough to get the IV in. She can do it. She has to do it. She owes him that much at the very least. 

“I’ve got it,” she says, breathing a sigh of relief as she finishes the final steps and the blood begins to flow back into Oliver’s body. 

“Good. Get him hooked up to the heart monitor,” John instructs her.

Felicity moves to grab the wires and connects them to his chest, then turns the machine on. When she turns back around, John is gently pushing Roy out of the way so that he can get to work.

Once she’s satisfied that there’s nothing more any of them can do for Oliver but wait for Digg to finish, she turns on Roy and Thea.

“Somebody talk,” she demands, desperate to know how Oliver had ended up with a bullet in his side when she hadn’t even known he was going on a mission.

“Three boys were kidnapped by The Order,” Thea explains, her voice small and terrified. “They were out looking for them and Oliver got hit.”

“I think you’re missing the point where Oliver was so distracted worrying over Felicity that he didn’t even notice somebody approaching from behind,” Roy says.

“What? Why would he have been worried about me?” Felicity asks, but then it starts to click.

She remembers the 48 missed calls. Oliver and Thea both had been trying to get in touch with her and she’d been too caught up in her own trauma that she hadn’t been near her phone. And now, because of it, Oliver is bleeding out on a makeshift med table.

“He couldn’t get a hold of you and he started thinking that maybe The Order had come after you again,” Roy says. “He was seriously freaked.”

“I was in my therapist’s office. My phone was off…” she starts to defend herself, but trails off when she realizes how awful that sounds.

There’s no excuse for this. Oliver had needed her help on this mission and she wasn’t here. Not only was she not here to protect him and make sure that things like this didn’t happen, but her not being here had distracted him.

If he dies, it will be her fault.

“You were at your therapist’s office all day?” Thea asks, skeptically.

“I don’t question you guys when you spend hours taking your problems out by punching each other, do I?” she snaps, before realizing that it’s not Thea she’s mad at. It’s herself.

“Well, we’ve got an even bigger problem than Oliver getting shot,” Roy says.

“Something worse than a bullet to his chest?” Thea asks.

“It’s his side, and as far as I can tell, the bullet has missed most of his essential organs,” John says, but Thea barely hears him.

“When he got shot, his hood fell off,” Roy says. “I’m not sure that they recognized him, but Oliver’s the mayor. He’s one of the most photographed men in the city. Even if The Order didn’t already prove Oliver’s on their radar with that hostage crisis, it’s likely at least one of them put two and two together.”

“I can’t worry about that right now,” Felicity says, shaking her head. She feels like there’s a monster in her chest that’s trying to claw it’s way out. She’s so angry at herself that she can barely see straight, let alone worry about anything that isn’t making sure Oliver lives to see another day.

She pulls a chair over to Oliver’s side to stroke his hair while she watches John work. It’s not much, but it’s the only thing she can do in the moment to comfort him.

“Felicity, I know that Oliver’s hurt right now so it’s hard to think of anything else, but finding out Oliver is The Green Arrow is bad,” Roy explains. “You didn’t hear how they were talking to us. They hate The Green Arrow. They blame him for taking them down last time, and rightfully so. They will stop at nothing to take him down. And there isn’t a soul in this city that doesn’t know the real way to get to Oliver Queen isn’t by attacking him…”

“It’s by attacking his family,” Thea says at the same time that what Roy is trying to say clicks in Felicity’s mind.

She looks up at Roy in fear. She’s sure all of the blood has left her face.

“You think that they’re going to go after Grace and Ella?” Felicity says, barely a whisper.

“Where are they?” Roy asks.

“With my mom,” she says.

Thea already has her phone out to call before anyone can say anything, and Roy is grabbing his bow.

“We’ll get them,” Roy tells her. “They’ll be okay.”

“Lance? Hey, tell me the girls are with you,” Felicity hears Thea say into the phone.

“Roy…”

“We’ll get them,” Roy assures her, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Just take care of Oliver.”

She nods.

“Somebody should call and warn Samantha and William,” she says, feeling numb all over. 

“I’ll tell them to get out of town for a few days,” Roy says, giving her one last reassuring smile before running out. 

Felicity continues to stare after them long after they’ve left, trying to practice breathing in and out like Allison had shown her.

She’s not sure how long she sits like that, but it’s long enough for John to finish stitching Oliver up and bandage his wound.

“Do you think I brought this back with me?” Felicity whispers, halfway hoping that John won’t hear her so she won’t have to hear the truth. Which is that she’s the one to blame for why her world’s been a mess ever since she returned home.

“Brought what back?” he asks, though she can tell that he already knows exactly what she’s talking about. 

“All this pain and suffering,” she says.

He gives her a sad, pitying look, before shaking his head. 

“Our lives were filled with pain and suffering long before your kidnapping,” John says, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. “I’ve told you this before and I was hoping after some time in therapy you’d finally take my advice. You need to learn to forgive yourself. You didn’t bring this back with you.”

She doesn’t respond to that. She doesn’t bother explaining all the reasons why he’s wrong. She knows he won’t listen to her. John’s like Oliver in that way. Neither of them have ever been willing to admit just how much she’s changed during her time away. They believe she’s still capable of finding her way back into the light. Of being  _ their _ light again.

“I learned who’s responsible for all the terrorist attacks today,” Felicity says, instead.

“The group who’s been killing off masks? Who?” John asks.

“My father,” she says.

“Felicity, your father is dead.”

“You don’t think I know that?” she asks. “I was there. I’m the one that killed him.”

“Then how is he responsible for what’s happening?” John asks.

“Because he’s the one that founded The Council,” she explains before laughing bitterly. “Even in death, he’s still found a way to come after me and my family.”

****

**_2021_ **

_ The thing that nobody ever explains about about the desert is that it’s not necessarily hot simply because it’s dry. It’s December and Felicity has been left outside, barefoot and in a dress that’s too short and thin to provide much warmth. The sweater she’d been wearing had to be turned into a sling to support her broken arm, leaving her with very minimal protection from the cold. _

_ It’s not freezing, but it’s hardly warm either. If she had to guess, she’d say it’s somewhere in the 40s and the wind is making it feel even cooler. Felicity is shivering and wishing like hell she didn’t have such a penchant for wearing dresses all the time. _

_ Why couldn’t she have been kidnapped wearing a nice warm pair of jeans and tennis shoes? _

_ Felicity stares down at the map in her hand trying to figure out her next move. She’d headed towards the mountains in hopes that climbing to the top would give her a better lay of the land so that she could figure out where she is. However, now that she’s up here, all she can see for miles is sand and possibly, way off in the distance, some green. _

_ She assumes the green means that there’s a water source nearby. Probably the river, but there’s no guarantee where along the river she is. _

_ The sound of a motor running has her standing up and looking around for the source. There is a caravan of cars passing down below. The caravan doesn’t look like any formal military, but the men sitting in the open backs with large guns has her believing it’s one of the many terrorist organizations that have come into power since ISIS was dismantled. From what she’s read in the paper, they aren’t any kind of men she wants to meet. _

_ She ducks down low, hoping not to be seen, but there’s not a lot of cover to be had out here in the middle of nowhere. Her father’s words ring in her ears. ‘They’d just love to capture a good old American blonde.’ _

_ Felicity holds her breath, waiting for them to pass by. As the sounds grow quieter, she dares to look up and sees the cars growing smaller in the distance. She’s safe for now. _

_ She sighs in relief and sits back up. The cars are headed out to the east, which likely means there’s a city in that direction. A city she hardly wants to visit if those men and their guns are anything to go by. Which at least eliminates one direction for her. She decides to head north and pray she’s not too far from the Turkish border. _

_ The walk down the mountain is significantly easier on her body than the climb up, but the rocks still tear at her bare feet and her arm is growing more painful by the hour. _

_ Felicity wonders what this trial is supposed to prove. Obviously the first trial had been a test of her resourcefulness. A test to see if she was smart enough to escape and brave enough to take out her kidnappers. However, she has no idea what dropping her in the middle of the desert with an incomplete map is supposed to prove. _

_ Felicity is a tech girl. She can hack with the best of them. She can build a computer in minutes. Occasionally, she can make stuff, like a taser from a disposable camera. What she’s not is Bear Grylls. This is the kind of trial that Oliver would thrive in. But her? She’s going to get killed out here. If the locals don’t get her, the dehydration will once she runs out of water. If she can get to the river, she’ll be fine, but there’s no telling exactly how far away the river is. _

_ Her traitor of a father believes she should be spending this time making her peace with God. Like this is some kind of sick version of a walkabout. However, she’s already made peace with God. She made it long ago when she decided to help Oliver in his crusade to save the city. Felicity knows she has nothing to repent for. _

_ She’s committed her life to helping others. She attends synagogue every Saturday morning. Regardless of what her father might think, she isn’t living a life of sin simply because she’s changed her name and hair color. _

_ It’s clear to her now, that whatever her father is doing, he’s doing it because he believes it’s his calling. He is so insane that he actually believes kidnapping her was for her own good. He’s an extremist, and historically, that’s never a good thing. Felicity doesn’t know exactly what organization her father is a part of, or what they have planned, but she knows she wants nothing to do with it. _

_ She’s so caught up in her own thoughts, that she doesn’t think about trying to stick to the shadows. Not that there’s much to hide behind out here. So when another caravan comes through, there’s little she can do to hide from it. _

_ Three tan Jeeps circle around her, trapping her in. She can’t understand what the men are calling to her as they jump out of the cars, but their tone of voice and hard glares tells her all she needs to know. _

_ “My family will pay anything to get me back. We have the means to fill any ransom. You don’t have to kill me,” she says, praying they understand English. _

_ If they do, they clearly aren’t motivated by money, because the only reaction she gets is to be pushed violently to the ground. _

_ She sucks in a terrified breath as the men look her up and down, staring particularly long at her exposed legs. She pushes her dress down as far as it can go, but it does little good. They are already looking at her like she’s a piece of meat. _

_ Uncaring of the fact that it will do her little good, she begins screaming as loudly as she can. _

_ “Don’t you dare touch me!” she screams as one of the men moves to grab her, kicking him away. She reaches for her bag, desperate to get the gun that had been left there for her, but the bag is kicked out of the way. _

_ The men continue talking to each other as they leer at her, and it sounds like they are arguing. Over what exactly, is unclear, but she’s got a few guesses. _

_ This is not going to end well for her. _

_ She continues to scream out, praying to God that her father and his men aren’t as far away as she thinks. That he’s been keeping an eye on her this entire time, watching how she survives the trial. And that he isn’t so far gone that he’ll let these men defile her and murder her. _

_ Somewhere, deep down, he has to still care about her enough to save her. He has to, because the alternative is her death. _

_ However, as the minutes tick by, she is left with the cold realization that she really doesn’t know what her father is capable of. He’s already let her murder 8 men and left her to die in the middle of the desert. For all she knows, this right here is her trial. For all she knows, he’s hired these men to attack her just to see if she’s strong enough to fight back. _

_ Except, she’s not. Felicity isn’t a warrior. She’s the tech girl. She’s the brains of the operation. She’s never been the muscle. _

_ She closes her eyes and begins to pray for salvation. For God to help her. For a miracle to come and save her. _

_ She’s praying when the first bullet fires, except it doesn’t hit her. _

_ A second and third gunshot quickly follow, but they don’t hit her either. She opens her eyes to find all of the men focused on a different target. A shape she can’t see clearly beyond the men who are blocking her view. _

_ “I’m only going to ask once. Step away from my wife.”  _

_ She hears his voice and nearly cries in relief. She has no idea how he’s found her in the middle of the desert, but it doesn’t matter. She’d prayed for a miracle, and here he is. _

_ “Oliver?” she whispers, unable to hold back her smile. _

_ He doesn’t have time to answer her, as several gunshots go off. Felicity scrambles to her feet and cringes as several bullets slice through the car that Oliver is currently hiding behind. Ice cold fear fills her heart as she begins to realize how bad the situation they’ve found themselves in is. _

_ Oliver doesn’t have his bow. He’s not here as The Green Arrow. Otherwise all of the men would have been incapacitated by now. He doesn’t have a weapon at all, or he’d be defending himself. She has to do something or they are going to kill Oliver. _

_ Felicity doesn’t stop to think. There’s not time to come up with a plan. She reaches into her bag and pulls out the gun her father had given her and fires off two shots. As the men she shot fall to the ground, all guns turn to her. _

_ “Yeah, didn’t really think that through,” she mumbles.  _

_ “Get down!” Oliver yells, jumping over the hood of the Jeep and knocking out one of the men as he goes.  _

_ Felicity passes him the gun before ducking down low and moving out of the way as much as she possibly can, while Oliver works to take out the rest of them. She’s so focused on Oliver and the way he’s simultaneously dodging bullets, firing the gun, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, that she doesn’t realize one of the men has snuck up behind her until it’s too late.  _

_ Her ponytail is grabbed and she’s dragged to the center of the circle, then she’s pushed violently forward on her knees. She can’t quite contain the terrified whimper when the cool barrel of a gun is put to her temple. As Oliver takes out the last man, he turns to them and freezes, eyes going back and forth between her and the man holding a gun to her head, clearly trying to work out a plan.  _

_ “Oliver,” she says, and it comes out much closer to a cry then she would like, but she can’t swallow the overwhelming fear. He’s finally found her, only to have to watch her die. How is that fair?  _

_ “Let her go,” Oliver says to the man.  _

_ The man says something to Oliver, but it’s in Arabic. Or what Felicity has to assume is Arabic, because she doesn’t understand a word of it.  _

_ She whimpers again as the man shifts against her and begins running his hands through her ponytail. She can see the rage on Oliver’s face, along with the urge to act, to protect her. However, he’s stuck. He has no moves to try that won’t risk the gun going off.  _

_ Instead, Oliver practically growls at the man and says, “Leave her alone.”  _

_ Felicity can hear him cocking the revolver and she knows there’s nothing to be done. She’ll be dead before Oliver has the chance to raise his own gun.  _

_ “Oliver,” she cries.  _

_ “Shh, it’s okay, Felicity,” he says, to which she can only scoff. Nothing about this is okay and he doesn’t believe so either. If he did, his voice wouldn’t be hitching the way it is.  _

_ “I love you,” he tells her, looking straight at her and she can see that he’s trying his damndest to be brave, but he’s failing miserably. She can see by the tears streaming down his face that he doesn’t see any way out of this.  _

_ He’s telling her goodbye.  _

_ Her fearless husband, who has traveled all the way across the world to find her. This beautiful man who has already lost so many people. When they’d gotten married, she’d promised him that she would never leave him. She can’t die. He won’t survive it if she does.  _

_ Oliver is here. She’s so close to finally getting home and ending this nightmare that she can taste it. The only thing standing in her way is this man who is pointing a gun to her head.  _

_ Felicity takes a deep breathe, gathers all of her remaining courage, and takes complete advantage of the fact that the man’s attention is currently on Oliver. She reaches up and pulls the gun forward just enough that it’s no longer pointed at her head. Which is a good thing, because it goes off in that exact moment. The sound is deafening, but she can’t focus on that right now. She’s wrestling with the man for control as he continues to fire off shots, each one narrowly missing her.  _

_ At this point, Oliver circles around them, changing position. He raises his gun and pulls the trigger. The man goes limp against her and she falls forward under the weight of him on top of her.  _

_ “Ugh,” she groans. “That’s not nearly as sexy as action movies make it seem.”  _

_ Oliver lets out a relieved laugh and pushes the dead man’s weight off of her, then pulls her to her feet.  _

_ The second she’s standing, they are in each other’s arms. They are both sobbing. Her into his neck, him into her hair.  _

_ “I thought I’d lost you,” he cries, holding her so tightly that it makes her already aching body scream out in protest, but she doesn’t complain. She hadn’t thought she would ever see Oliver again. He can hug her as tightly as he wants to. She’s not sure if she’ll ever let him out of her sight again.  _

_ “You’re here,” she cries. “I can’t believe you’re here. I didn’t think you’d ever find me.”  _

_ “I wasn’t going to stop,” he says. “I can’t… Thank god you’re okay… I thought that…”  _

_ It would seem as if her penchant for talking in sentence fragments has rubbed off on him, because he can’t finish a single sentence due to how much he’s crying.  _

_ “I love you,” she says, pulling back just barely, so that she can look at him. She takes his face in her good hand and pulls him down so that she can kiss him properly.  _

_ One kiss, however, isn’t nearly enough. Not after weeks of separation. Not after countless days and nights where she thought that she would never see him again. So they kiss, then they kiss some more. Oliver’s hands come up to cradle her face, but she hisses in pain as they press against what must be a pretty massive bruise.  _

_ At the sound of her in pain, the trance is broken. Oliver pulls back and looks at her — really looks at her for the first time. She can only imagine what he sees. She’s utterly broken. Felicity isn’t sure if there’s a single part of her body that isn’t bruised.  _

_ As his fingers come up to gently graze her face, right where she’d been pistol whipped earlier that day, he let’s out a deep growl.  _

_ “I’m going to kill them,” Oliver says.  _

_ He’s completely serious, she knows. If he comes accross her father, he’ll kill him.  _

_ And then Felicity remembers, Oliver doesn’t even know who really took her. He has no idea how badly she’s been betrayed.  _

_ “Oliver…” she starts to explain, but he’s distracted by her injuries. He’s dropped to his knees and is examining her broken arm closely, careful not to touch it and cause her any unnecessary pain.  _

_ “We need to get you to a hospital,” he says.  _

_ “Great idea,” she tells him. “I’m more than ready to go home. I’m assuming you’ve got a plane waiting or something?”  _

_ Oliver looks up at her in confusion for a second, before his face falls. He shakes his head.  _

_ “I don’t understand,” Felicity says. “How did you get here? Did you take one of the Palmer Tech jets?”  _

_ “I didn’t come here. I was left here,” Oliver says, standing up and taking her good hand in both of his. His touch is comforting, even if his words are not.  _

_ “What do you mean left here?” she asks. “Like by Digg?”  _

_ Oliver winces at her words, but she can’t imagine why so she continues questioning him.  _

_ “What’s the plan?”  _

_ “Felicity, there is no plan,” he admits, shoulders sagging in defeat. “The plan was to go to Russia to rescue you. Only that failed, and when I woke up, I was here.”  _

_ “I don’t understand,” she says, looking around their surroundings like it will provide some kind of answer for her.  _

_ Oliver was brought and left here, just like she was, but to what purpose? She’s been brought here as part of a trial to initiate her into whatever supervillain club her father has found himself a part in. Did that trial involve Oliver somehow? If so, to what end?  _

_ “Felicity, we need to find a way out of this country and back home,” he explains.  _

_ “How?” she says. “I don’t even know where here is, exactly. All they gave me is this stupid map with an ending location, some water, food, and a gun.”  _

_ “You have a map, too?” Oliver asks.  _

_ “What do you mean, too?” she asks.  _

_ She watches as he pulls out a map, similar to her own, only his map tells her that they aren’t far from the Euphrates River and a city called Al Kasrah. It’s about 30 miles from the star on her own map. In this moment, she realizes that her father had planned for them to find each other all along. It’s why they both had two different parts of the map. It gives her an unsettling feeling to know that even when she’s trying so hard not to, she’s still playing right into his hands.  _

_ “They want us to go to Deir ez-Zur,” she says, showing Oliver her own map.  _

_ “I don’t give a damn what the hell they want,” Oliver says. “I’m taking you home.”  _

_ Home. It sounds glorious. Under any other circumstance, hearing Oliver say that would fill her with such relief and joy. However, she’s starting to see that this entire thing goes alot deeper than any of them realize. Somehow, she doesn’t think that they’ll simply be able to click their heels three times and end up in Star City again.  _

_ “I would love to go home...” Felicity says, taking two steps forward and laying her head on his chest, sighing in relief when his arms wrap around her.  _

_ “Why do I feel like there’s a but coming?” he asks, rubbing his hands up and down her back in a soothing gesture. It’s only then that she realizes how badly she’s shaking.  _

_ Has she been trembling this whole time?  _

_ “Because I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Felicity whispers. “My dad is a smart man, and I have no idea what his plan is…”  _

_ “Your dad?” Oliver asks, pushing at her hips until she steps back enough to meet his eyes. “Your dad is the one that took you?!”  _

_ Felicity can only nod.  _

_ “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!”  _

_ **** _

**2026**

Felicity sits at Oliver’s side, counting his breaths. It’s far easier to focus on the fact that he is still alive than the overwhelming worry that is currently building up in her chest. 

She’s just gotten off the phone with the SCPD. Apparently, there has been a break-in at her building and somebody had trashed her apartment. The police have no leads at the moment, but Felicity knows exactly who’s to blame. Roy hadn’t been wrong to believe that The Final Order would go after her and the girls now that they know for sure that Oliver Queen is The Green Arrow. 

Of course the most obvious place they’d start is at the loft. Thankfully, her mom was babysitting the girls at home tonight, so they hadn’t been there during the break-in. Felicity shutters to think about what would have happened if they’d gotten their hands on the girls. 

No, currently Grace and Ella are fine. Thea and Roy are bringing them here, along with Quentin and Donna just to be safe. 

“They’re okay,” Felicity whispers into Oliver’s ear as she runs her fingers through his hair. She says it more for her own benefit than his. He’s unconscious at the moment, and likely has no idea what is going on. 

It’s not a lie. They are okay. Rationally, she knows that. Thea and Roy would give their life before they allowed so much as a scratch on either of her daughters. However, she can’t help but panic until she’s able to hold both girls for herself and check that they are alright. 

“They’re alright,” she says again, kissing Oliver’s forehead. “The girls are on their way here. Samantha took William to her cousin’s. Everyone is alright. You’re going to be fine. Everything is okay.” 

“Everything is okay,” John says, causing her to jump in her chair. She’d practically forgotten that he was still here. 

“Sorry,” he says. “I brought you some coffee and soup. Mrs. Kato made it.” 

Felicity takes the coffee out of his hands, but ignores the soup. She can’t even think about eating right now. Not with the way her stomach is in knots. 

“When was the last time you ate something?” John asks, giving her a knowing look. 

“I ate breakfast,” she says defensively. She’d been too distracted by her complete and utter mental breakdown at her therapist’s office today to worry about lunch and now…. With Oliver’s injury and the threat against their family? She’s not going to be eating again tonight. 

“Real breakfast, or a cereal bar?” he asks, even though his hard look tells her that he already knows the answer to that question. He pulls a tray over to her and putting the soup on top of it. “Eat something. You won’t be any good to anyone if you pass out.” 

Felicity nods, just to get him to stop bugging her about it. He accepts it for now, but she knows he’ll nag her again about it in an hour or so. 

“It’d be really nice if you could wake up now,” she whispers to Oliver, so she won’t be overheard by John. “Please. For me. Just open your eyes.”

Felicity still can’t quite wrap her mind around how all of this happened to them. The Final Order had kidnapped 3 boys. Oliver had gone after them, despite being worried about her. He’d tried to call her, and when she didn’t answer, his mind started thinking the worst. Of course it had. Oliver, despite all current appearances, still found it hard to be optimistic most days. His mind will always go to the worst case scenario. He will always worry over her safety, especially after what they went through with her father. 

She knows this. 

Still, she had turned her phone off. She had no idea that Oliver was frantically trying to find out if she was alright or not. She’d completely fallen apart today and in her mental crisis, she’d missed an actual crisis. Oliver was out in the field without her and he’d been shot. 

Oliver had almost died tonight without her watching his back. Not only that, but he’d been exposed as The Green Arrow and now, The Final Order is targeting the Queen family in order to get even with Oliver. 

All of this, everything that has happened and will happen as a result of this? It’s Felicity’s fault. If only she’d been stronger. If only she were able to take bad news without it sending her into an 8 hour tailspin. 

“I’m so sorry,” Felicity whispers as her head falls to Oliver’s shoulder and she begins crying. 

She better let it all out now. The second the girls arrive, she needs to be completely composed. She needs to take care of this. Oliver is in no position to fix this, he can’t even handle opening his eyes right now. 

Felicity is allowing herself 5 minutes to fall apart. 5 minutes to wallow in her own guilt and grief before she has to pull it together. 

“I didn’t mean to,” she cries into his shoulder. “You have to be okay. I can’t lose you. I love you too much. I know I don’t say it… but I love you. I need you. I just… Please be okay. This can’t be my fault, too. I couldn’t handle it…” 

Felicity doesn’t know what she expects. For him to wake up and tell her that she’s not to blame? Life doesn’t work like that. Life isn’t a movie. If it were, Oliver would squeeze her hand and when she looked up, he’d have his eyes open and would be smiling at her. He’d tell her that she’s not at fault for this. She’d cry. He’d tell her that he loves her and that would be enough. Those 3 words would solve all of her problems. They’d both kiss and then the credits would roll. 

Real life isn’t so kind. It never has been, for either of them. Oliver, a man who’d never deserved any of the bad things that had come his way, spent 5 years in hell before coming home. He then proceeded to lose his best friend, his mother, and his one-time-love. Oliver has known more pain than anyone she’s ever known and he never deserved an ounce of it. 

What makes her think her life would be any more kind than his has been. Felicity, unlike Oliver, deserves every bad thing that has ever happened to her. 

Felicity hears the garage door opening, signaling everyone’s return. She wipes her eyes, not worried about her makeup smearing. She’d cried that off earlier in the day and hadn’t bothered reapplying it. She leans over and gives Oliver one last kiss on the cheek before she stands up properly and walks over to greet her daughters who have just come running into the main room with Thea trailing after them, calling for them to be careful. 

“Mommy!” Ella cries, throwing herself around Felicity’s legs while Grace looks up at her with large, scared eyes. 

“Aunt Thea said that Dad had been hurt,” she says. “Are the bad men back? The ones that took you?” 

Felicity looks to Thea, demanding an explanation, but Thea only shrugs. 

“I didn’t want them to be surprised when they came in and saw him lying there,” Thea says. “And they were asking why they couldn’t go home.” 

“Grace, Sweetheart…” Felicity doesn’t know how to have this conversation with her daughter. How does she tell her 8 year old that yes, the bad men who had nearly destroyed their family 5 years ago are back, but they aren’t the bad men that are currently after them. That the bad men currently after them had shot their father and are now coming after them to get back at Oliver. 

It’s not a conversation she feels is entirely appropriate to have with her elementary aged children. 

Then again, she can’t lie to her. The girls need to know how serious this is, so that they understand just why they can’t leave here until they’ve figured out what to do about The Order. 

“Dad?” Grace says, seeing Oliver on the med table for the first time. Her breath catches and she runs over to him, quickly followed by Ella’s, “Daddy!” 

“Careful!” Felicity calls after them. 

“Daddy! Wake up! Are you sleeping?” Ella asks, attempting to climb up on the table with Oliver. Felicity grabs her and puts her back down on the floor. 

“Your dad got a little bit hurt today, we need to be gentle with him and let him rest,” Felicity explains. 

“Why’s he hurt?” Ella asks, peaking at Oliver. Her eyes can just barely see over the table with how short she is. 

“Well…” Felicity trails off, unsure how exactly to tell the girls what happened to him. 

“Your daddy was trying to save some little boys who needed help and a bad man shot him,” Thea answers for her, picking Ella up and putting her on her hip so that she can see better. “But Uncle John made it all better. All your daddy needs now is a little bit of rest.” 

“And love?” Ella asks, but Grace cuts her off. 

“Was it because he’s The Green Arrow?” she asks, causing everyone to look at her in surprise. Felicity hadn’t realized that Grace was aware he was The Green Arrow. She had only been in the lair once when she was three and they never brought it up around the girls. Clearly, though, her daughter had inherited her insatiable curiosity. 

“That’s why he’s not at the hospital right? Cause The Green Arrow got shot and it has to be a secret?” 

“That’s not...” Felicity starts to lie, but decides better of it. “Yes.”

Grace nods her head, and looks back at her dad. Her bottom lip is quivering, but Felicity can see that she’s trying to be strong and not let her fear show. That bravery? It’s all Oliver. Felicity feels a new round of guilt for being the cause for Oliver’s injury when Grace reaches out her hand and runs in through Oliver’s hair, stating, “Don’t leave us, Dad. We still need you.” 

“I can kiss it better?” Ella says, leaning so far out of Thea’s arms that she almost falls before Thea can readjust. Ella kisses Oliver’s cheek first then very carefully kisses his side where he’d been bandaged up. 

“Daddy says kisses are magic,” Ella explains to Thea. 

“Magic isn’t going to fix this,” Grace tells her sister, causing Ella to start crying into Thea’s shoulder.  

“Grace,” Felicity says, giving her a warning look. 

“Well it’s not,” Grace says. “He’s been shot and it’s wrong to lie.” 

“That doesn’t mean you have to scare her. Your dad is going to be fine, I promise,” Felicity says. 

“Like he promised you would be fine when you went missing? Or like he promised he’d be back soon when he left us with Aunt Thea?” Grace says. “It’s not nice to lie just because we are little.” 

“You’re right,” Donna says, cutting into the conversation. “We lied to you back then because we didn’t want you to worry. Maybe that was wrong, but it’s a parent’s job to try and protect their children.” 

“I was worried anyway,” Grace explains, her eyes never leaving Oliver’s face. “My parents were gone and all I had was my baby sister.” 

“Hey, you had me,” Thea says in mock offense, obviously trying to lighten up the mood of the room. 

“I’m just saying… you shouldn’t tell her that he’s going to wake up if he’s not,” Grace says with a shrug, then pulls a chair over to the table and lays her head down on Oliver’s shoulder. 

Felicity tries to talk to her, but she won’t look up or acknowledge her presence. Felicity feels like Mother of the Year. She can’t even get her own daughter to look at her and she’s not sure she blames her. It is Felicity’s fault that Oliver is even in this position in the first place. She wonders if on some level, Grace can sense that, and that’s why she’s being so standoffish right now. 

“She’s just scared,” John says, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. “It has nothing to do with you.” 

“It has everything to do with me,” Felicity says with a deep sigh, careful to keep her words quiet enough that neither of the girls hear her. “This all happened because of me.”

“This happened because of The Order,” John says, giving her a stern look. “I swear sometimes, it’s like you and Oliver don’t know how to function without taking blame for the world’s problems.” 

Felicity doesn’t respond. Instead, she pulls up a chair of her own and sits down, pulling Ella out of Thea’s arms so that the three of them can sit and hold vigil for Oliver until he wakes up. 

Because he’s going to wake up. 

He has to. 

****

Felicity jolts awake with a sharp kick to the shin. At first, she looks around in confusion. She doesn’t even remember falling asleep, let alone how she’s ended up somehow lying in a cot with Ella sprawled out next to her. 

Suddenly, the culprit for the bruise she’ll have on her shin in the morning becomes obvious. Ella has always been a restless sleeper. She tosses and turns at night, which is why she’s never allowed to share a bed with anyone whenever they go on vacation. 

Felicity rolls out of bed and immediately scans the room for Grace, finding her in a cot with Thea on the other side of the med table. Satisfied that both of her babies are still safe and haven’t been kidnapped by The Order in her sleep, she moves to check on Oliver. 

First, she focuses on his breathing. She watches the clock as she counts his breaths per minute. He’s still not breathing quite normally, but it’s not anything bad enough to concern her. She then moves on to check his pulse rate. It’s a little lower than she would like to see, but has improved drastically since when he first was brought in. Finally, she peels back the bandage on his side carefully to make sure that the stitches have held and that he’s not showing any signs of infection. 

“How is he?” Thea asks, startling Felicity. She hadn’t even realized anyone else was up. 

“About as well as can be expected,” Felicity says, keeping her voice down so they don’t wake the girls. 

“I’ve seen him get hurt so many times in the field, but each time he just walks it off like it’s nothing. He may spend an hour or two down for the count, but he bounces back quick. I just… I knew the risks when we came back to the team, but I didn’t think this would happen…” Thea explains, her voice watery. 

“This isn’t the first time I’ve sat at his bedside wondering if he’s ever going to wake up,” she explains. “But somehow, each time, he does.” 

“I think I just forget sometimes…” 

“Forget what?” Felicity asks. 

“That’s he’s not a superhero,” Thea explains. “He’s human, just like the rest of us. He’s not the man of steel. He doesn’t have super fast healing powers. He can die just as easily as the rest of us. One wrong move…” 

“One distraction,” Felicity says, feeling like she’s been punched right in the chest at the reminder of exactly why Oliver is lying here. 

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Thea says. “I just… I’m just trying to say that today was rough for me to see. I’ve gotten used to the idea that nothing can hurt Ollie, but that’s not true and that scares me. He’s the only family I have left.” 

“That’s not true,” she tells her. “You have Roy. You’ve got the girls. You have me…” 

“Do I?” Thea asks, giving her a significant look. “Because we were sisters, then you came back and everything was different. I haven’t really gotten the impression that you’ve wanted me around much.” 

“Thea, that’s ridiculous,” Felicity says. “You’re one of my closest friends. I’m always going to want you around.”

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah,” she confirms. “I’m sorry if I haven’t always been able to show it. I’ve spent the last 5 years in a fog. It was all I could do to continue taking care of the girls. I want to be better. That’s why I started going to therapy.” 

“Do you think it’s helping?” Thea asks. “I used to think that Ollie needed to go to therapy to get over everything that happened on that island, but now…” 

“But now?” 

“Now, I don’t know,” Thea says. “He stopped needing it a long time ago. Somehow, he found a way to live with everything that happened and started allowing himself to be happy again. I’d like to think that I had something to do with that, but I’m pretty sure it was all you, and then later, the girls.” 

Thea gives her a significant look, and Felicity can hear everything that she’s not saying. If Felicity could be that light for Oliver, maybe she could allow Oliver to be her light. 

“I don’t deserve to be happy,” Felicity tells her. 

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Thea says. 

“Thea, look at what happened today,” she says. “I left Oliver because he deserved so much better than a wife that couldn’t even look him in the eyes without falling apart. He deserved somebody who wasn’t a monster. Then I started thinking that maybe I was wrong… maybe I could start to heal. Maybe I could start to become worthy of his love again, if only I got myself together and worked through my issues. Only, as I was distracted working on my own issues, Oliver got shot.” 

“You know that he doesn’t blame you for what happened,” Thea says. “He’s just relieved that you and the girls are alright.” 

“I thought I was doing so well. I started opening up to my therapist… But now…” Felicity trails off, because she doesn’t know how to end that sentence. Now what? Now she’s realized it’s all pointless? That she’s destined to screw things up the rest of her life? 

Does she really believe that? 

Felicity isn’t sure. Because a large part of her, the part that’s been in control of her every thought over the last 5 years, is telling her that she’s a horrible person. That she’s a murder and this is what she gets for daring to think she could ever be anything but a monster. 

But then… there’s another part of her… A small part, but a vaguely familiar part… It’s the optimistic part of her that has hope. It’s telling her that this isn’t her fault and if today has shown her anything, it’s that she shouldn’t waste so much time worrying over what she deserves. Oliver loves her and she loves Oliver. Why isn’t that enough? 

There’s a small part of her that’s telling her to see today as a lesson in how short life is. It’s telling her to take advantage of every moment while she still can. 

And she hasn’t heard that voice in years. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who reads this fic and comments! It really means the world to me!


	13. A Change in Trajectory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks as always goes to Emisfritish for her lovely beta skills! I don't know what I'd do without you. Another thanks goes to acheaptrickandacheesyoneline for looking at the first scene of this for me! <3 you both and all of your support! 
> 
> Sorry for the delay in updating. I'm hoping now that I'm done with school to get back to a weekly updating schedule!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2026**

Felicity sits at Oliver’s bedside counting his breaths as she continues to sort through her conflicting emotions. The girls are still asleep and Thea had finally passed out about two hours ago, but not before saying something that’s had Felicity’s mind working a mile a minute trying to make sense of it. 

_ “Why is it okay for you to blame yourself, but not for Oliver? Oliver was a member of the Bratva. He killed people for sport, yet you always tell him that he deserves to be happy. What makes you any different?” _

It’s nothing that hasn’t been said before. It’s just — it’s the first time she’s really heard it. It’s the first time she’s truly understood just how similar her situation is to Oliver’s. It’s the first time she’s allowed herself to understand. 

Syria is her Lian Yu. 

Felicity’s been unable to sleep, too consumed with trying to sort through her racing thoughts. She’s always believed that Oliver is a good person, despite the darkness in his past. The good he’s done in this world far outweighs the bad. 

She knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt that Oliver will wake up and tell her that getting shot was not her fault. He won’t blame her. So why is she so intent on blaming herself? 

Felicity hears the back door open and watches as John makes his way into the main room. 

“He’s still not awake,” she informs him quietly, startling him. 

“I didn’t realize you would be up,” John whispers. “It’s nearly 4 in the morning.” 

“Couldn’t sleep,” she informs him with a shrug. “What are you doing back so early?” 

“Wanted to see how he’s doing,” he says, moving to check on Oliver’s bandages. “His pain meds will be wearing off soon and he’ll need another dose.” 

“He hasn’t woken up all night,” she says. 

“I’m not surprised. The bullet did a number on his body,” he explains causing Felicity to grimace. 

It really had. He’d lost a lot of blood and even with the bullet missing his major organs, it was still a close call. They should count their blessings. A few inches higher and the bullet would have hit his heart and they likely would have lost him forever. 

She would have lost him forever. 

The thought alone sends chills down her spine. Oliver could have died tonight and if he had, he never would have known how much she still loves him. 

“He’ll wake up soon enough,” John says, squeezing her shoulder in comfort. “You know Oliver. Can’t keep him down for long.” 

“Yeah,” Felicity says, nodding her head. 

Oliver’s always been resilient. He’ll come out of this just fine, she knows. She’d realized so once she’d been able to get her head above water from the drowning feelings of fear and guilt. 

“You want to tell me why you’re not sleeping?” John asks once he finishes checking Oliver over and giving him another shot of pain meds. 

“Just been thinking,” she says. 

“Drowning in your sorrows?” He gives her a knowing look. 

She shakes her head. 

“More like trying to reconcile two pieces of myself…” she explains, trailing off when he looks at her in confusion and she realizes that she’s not making much sense. 

“How do you think Oliver finally got over everything that happened on Lian Yu?” she asks instead. 

“I have my suspicions, but I think that’s a conversation you should have with him yourself,” John tells her. 

“I’m not sure how,” she confesses. “Oliver’s never really opened up about everything that happened to him there.” 

“True,” John says with a shrug. “But that boy would do anything for you if he thought it might help you.” 

Felicity nods, because she knows he’s right. However, her hesitance doesn’t come from asking him to talk about Lian Yu. It’s from the expectation that she would in turn have to talk about Syria. Or even worse — Israel. It’s from the fact that Oliver is going to tell her that she’d done everything she was supposed to do given the circumstances. However, she knows it’s not true. She knows that if any one of them were in her shoes, they would have found another way. 

She’s been playing the ‘what if’ game for years. What if she’d never been kidnapped? What if she’d never tried to escape that basement? What if she’d let them kill her instead? What if she’d never called Oliver? 

It’s easy to question how things could be different if only she’d made different decisions. But it’s been 5 years and those games have gotten her nowhere. What she really needs is forgiveness. 

And the first step to gaining forgiveness is to ask for it.

Felicity knows she won’t be able to forgive herself just yet. But perhaps she can start somewhere easy. 

Perhaps she can start by apologizing to those she’s hurt the most. She’d apologized to Thea earlier and afterwards, she’d felt just a little bit lighter. 

“Hey John?” Felicity says, reaching out her hand to stop him from leaving. “I’m sorry.” 

“You have nothing to apologize for,” he tells her, putting his hand over her own and squeezing it. “Not to me.” 

“Just let me say this,” she says, giving him a pleading look, to which he nods. “I’m sorry that you got hurt trying to save me in Russia. I’m sorry that I wasn’t here when The Order took you and tortured you. But most of all, I’m sorry for quitting the team and not being there for you for the last several years. I was supposed to be your best friend and I abandoned you.” 

She can tell that he wants to argue with her. She can see it in his eyes as she lists everything she’s done to him over the last few years, but it’s a testament to how well he knows her that he doesn’t. Instead, he pulls on her arm until she’s on her feet and he can wrap his arms around her. He squeezes her tight. 

“You’re here now, and that’s all that matters,” he whispers into her ear. 

****

**_2021_ **

_ “We can’t stay here,” Felicity tells him. “It’s not safe.”  _

_ Oliver doesn’t respond. He’s too focused on wrapping her broken wrist without causing her unnecessary pain. He’s also not sure if he can trust his own voice right now. He’s positively seething with rage and doing his best not to let it show. Felicity has obviously been through hell and back and the last thing he wants to do is scare her.  _

_ But there are very few times in his life that he’s ever been this angry at a single person. Felicity’s father — no. He refuses to call that bastard a father. Father is a title reserved for men who care about their children.  _ Abraham _ has had Felicity this entire time.  _

_ The man who’d cried to Oliver about how terrified he was for his daughter; The man who threatened to burn the entire city down to get his daughter back; The man who’d apparently stormed into Donna’s hospital room and accused her of being the reason Felicity'd been taken; That man? The so-called “loving” father who was ready to do anything to help save his daughter? He’s the one who’d taken her.  _

_ God, he’s good. Oliver had even felt sorry for him. He’d had no idea that Abraham knew where she was the entire time.  _

_ “If anyone finds us, it will be pretty hard to explain the bodies of 7 dead Syrians,” she says, but still, he doesn’t respond. If he opens his mouth right now, all he’ll be able to say is something hateful, and that’s not what she needs. Right now, Felicity needs tenderness. She needs gentle caring and… light.  _

_ Oliver is hardly feeling light at the moment.  _

_ “Oliver!” she says, using her good hand to smack his chest to get his attention.  _

_ “I’m going to murder him,” he repeats the only thing he’s been able to say for the last half hour, ever since he’d set her down in the trunk of the Jeep and began tending to her many wounds.  _

_ And god, there are too many wounds.  _

_ Felicity is black and blue all over. Her face is swollen, her nose is a bit crooked, and there is dried blood all over her. Her dress is torn in several places and covered in god knows what. It used to be one of her favorite dresses too, which somehow makes it even worse. And her feet… God, her feet are completely torn up from walking around without any shoes on.  _

_ “Not that I don’t share your rage, because I do,” Felicity says. “I want to murder the son of a bitch for what he’s done. But there are more immediate concerns.”  _

_ “Like patching you up and getting you to a hospital,” he says, gently putting her newly bandaged wrist and arm back into her makeshift sling.  _

_ “Like getting us out of the desert where anybody could find us,” she tells him, giving him a pointed look.  _

_ He lets out a long sigh, forcing the worst of his rage back down to deal with at a later date. Right now, he has to focus on taking care of Felicity.  _

_ “Nobody is going to hurt you again,” he promises her. “Not while I’m around.”  _

_ Felicity nods, giving him a small smile; silently letting him know that she trusts him to take care of her. It kills him. Despite sitting here bruised and broken because he hadn’t found her sooner, her faith in him is unwavering. It’s more than he deserves.  _

_ “I’m sorry he dragged you into this,” she tells him, “But I am relieved to see you.”  _

_ He steps closer to her and slides himself between her open legs to pull her against his chest. After 17 days apart, he just needs her as close as possible.  _

_ “I was so scared that I’d never see you again,” he tells her, kissing the top of her head.  _

_ “God, I’ve missed you and the girls so much,” Felicity says. “How are they? Is Grace sleeping okay? Did you have to switch Ella to formula? Oh god, our poor girls. Who did you leave them with?”  _

_ “They’re with Lyla. They’re okay. They miss you, but they are okay,” he tells her. “They’ll be better once we get you home.”  _

_ “Home,” she says the word so reverently that he’s sure she’d lost hope in ever returning to Star City again. It breaks his heart.  _

_ “I’m going to get us home,” he promises her. “Whatever it takes.”  _

_ “You don’t know my father,” Felicity groans. “I have no idea what he has planned but I highly doubt he’s going to let us go without a fight.”  _

_ “Felicity, look at me,” he says, putting his hand under her chin to get her to look up at him. Once their eyes meet, he continues, “He is never going to lay a finger on you again. Of that, you can be 100% sure. It may have taken me a lot longer than it should have to find you, but now that I have, nothing is going to harm you.” _

_ “Let’s get out of here,” she says.  _

_ He nods, and reaches around her back and under her knees to pull her into his arms. He doesn’t want her walking if they can help it. He walks them around to the side of the car and opens the passenger side door. He sets her down gently and helps her get buckled in.  _

_ “What’s the plan?” Felicity asks, once he settles into the driver’s seat and turns on the car. “Part of me says we should avoid any major cities. But then again… If we can get me to a WiFi connection and a computer, then I can—”  _

_ “We’re going to Iraq,” he says.  _

_ “What?” She looks at him in surprise. “Oliver, Iraq isn’t going to be any more friendly than Syria. How do you even propose we get across the border?”  _

_ “Iraq will at least have a US military base,” he informs her. “They’ll be able to help us arrange a safe passage home since neither of us has a passport.”  _

_ “And the whole, getting across the border problem?” she asks.  _

_ “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” he says, reaching out his right hand to place it on her knee, reminding himself that she’s really here.  _

_ She’s alive. Despite all the nights he’d stayed up late worrying; Despite all the times that the SCPD told him he should prepare himself for the fact that they may never find his wife; She’s here. Felicity is alive and… He wouldn't exactly call her well, but she’s well enough. Nothing has happened to her that time won’t heal eventually.  _

_ She pulls one of the maps out of her backpack and unfolds it, examining it closely.  _

_ “I’m pretty sure most of the military bases closed by now, but the one in Baghdad is still open. It’s 520 kilometers. Which is roughly 330 miles? It’s 329 point something. I’m too tired to do the math.”  _

_ Oliver can’t help but smile at her. Only she could convert kilometers into miles in a matter of seconds without a calculator then claim to be too tired to figure out the exact decimal point. His little genius.  _

_ “We’re not going to Baghdad. We need to get to Al Asad Air Base,” he informs her.  _

_ “How do you know there’s a base there?”  _

_ “I’ve heard John talk about a friend that’s stationed there,” he says. “It should be closer than Baghdad.”  _

_ He watches as Felicity finds the Air Base on the map and uses her good hand to measure out the distance between them and the base.  _

_ “It’s about 320 kilometers. So 198 miles? Assuming you drive 50 miles an hour that puts us there right around 4 hours,” she says.  _

_ “Perfect,” he say, pressing down harder on the gas, eager to get them there faster. “I want to be headed east?”  _

_ “Southeast,” she says, pulling out the compass to put on the dash board. “Though I’m going to be honest. I’m not used to navigating without a GPS.”  _

_ “Lucky for you, they didn’t have GPS on the island,” Oliver says, leaning over to give her a quick kiss, because how could he not? _

_ Felicity smiles at him, but it doesn’t last long. Soon she’s biting her lip and sitting back in her seat with a distant look in her eyes. It’s a look he isn’t used to seeing on her face, but knows from the very few occasions she’s worn it before. It’s guilt. He’s trying to figure out what’s going on in her mind when he notices how she keeps glancing in the rear view mirror and flinching.  _

_ Oliver squeezes her knee, hoping it will prompt her to talk to him. It works without fail.  _

_ “Do you think my father hired those men to come after me? Or was it just bad luck?”  _

_ “Why would your dad want those men to come after you?” he asks.  _

_ He hadn’t asked her earlier about what has happened to her over the last 17 days away, assuming that she wouldn’t want to relieve it. But he needs to know, in order for him to understand what’s going on. He has to understand the play. What does Abraham want with Felicity?  _

_ “He kept calling it a trial,” she says, laughing bitterly. “Like I’m being initiated into something.”  _

_ “Initiated into what?” he asks, feeling uneasy.  _

_ “Remember when I told you that my dad is Jewish the way that Westboro Baptist Church are Christians?” she asks. When he nods, she continues, “I think that might have been an understatement.”  _

_ Oliver sucks in a breath as he tries to wrap his mind around what it is exactly they’ve been pulled into.  _

_ “So when you pass this trial of theirs, then what?” he asks.  _

_ “I don’t know,” she shrugs. “But he was pretty impressed with how easily I murdered 8 of his men… Well, I guess now it’s 10.”  _

_ He can hear how her voice cracks over the word murder and the way her eyes move to the rear view mirror again, as if she’s trying to see the men they’d left behind. Suddenly, he understands why she’s feeling guilty and he hates it.  _

_ “It’s not murder when it’s self defense,” he tells her adamantly.  _

_ She doesn’t look like she believes him, however. She looks back at the mirror and says, “Do you think somebody will find their bodies?”  _

_ “I don’t know,” he answers honestly, unsure why it matters.  _

_ The way those men had been looking at Felicity when he’d arrived… They wanted to do more than just kill her. They were planning on having their way with her. They were monsters and got exactly what was coming to them. Even Oliver, who had long ago sworn off killing in order to honor Tommy, couldn’t feel guilty about killing men who had every intention of assaulting then murdering his wife.  _

_ “Their families deserve to bury them. Or cremate them. Do Muslims cremate their dead? Were those men even Muslim? Oh god, that’s awful. I should know what the customs are. What if it’s like Judaism and they have to bury the body within 24 hours and they can’t because we killed them in the middle of the desert where nobody will find them? What if they had kids at home? Oh god—”  _

_ “Felicity, stop,” he cuts her off, trying to stop her before she truly starts to spiral. He understands. Truly, he does. But the last thing he wants to do is lose Felicity to the darkness that comes when your hands are stained in blood. She’s a good person. If she’s killed anyone, it’s because she had no other option. He needs her to know that.  _

_ “I killed them,” she whispers, giving him a significant look. Looking at him like she needs him to tell her everything is going to be okay.  _

_ “I killed them, too,” he says. “It was self defense. They were going to kill you. The way they were looking at you...” He trails off, unable to make himself say it. Saying what those men were clearly about to do, what they had clearly been arguing over before he put a stop to it; it makes it too real.  _

_ “Those men were monsters, Felicity. You had to do it,” he continues when she remains silent. “I so wish that you hadn’t. I wish that I’d been able to get to you sooner and that you never had to have this kind of darkness touch you. But I didn’t and you had to.  You were simply defending yourself.”  _

_ “I know that you’re right,” she says, wiping a few tears from her eyes. “But they’re still dead and I’m still the one that killed them. 10 men, Oliver. Who does that?”  _

_ I do, Oliver thinks, but doesn’t say it. He’s killed a lot more than 10 people in his day and it hasn’t always been in self-defense.  _

_ “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Felicity says, grabbing the hand that’s still on her knee to tangle their fingers together. “You killed those men to protect me. And you’ve killed men before to protect others. You’re not a murderer. You’re a good man. I still believe that. It’s just...” she trails off.  _

_ “What?” he asks.  _

_ “All those times before, you always felt so guilty and John and I didn’t understand it. We didn’t get how you could always make everything your fault. But I get it now. Even when you don’t have any other option but to pull the trigger, it still feels really shitty,” she says.  _

_ He’s shocked to hear her swear. She does it so rarely. It lets him know just how much she’s beating herself up over this.  _

_ “Please don’t do this,” he says.  _

_ “I can’t just brush it off, Oliver,” she says. “I don’t want to. Feeling guilty over this? It reminds me that I’m different from them. That I’m not a monster.”  _

_ “I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel something,” he says. “I just don’t want to lose you to this. You’ve seen what killing can do to people. How it ate away at Roy, Thea, Digg… How it’s haunted me for years. I don’t want this for you. I just got you back.”  _

_ The thought of Felicity falling into darkness from overwhelming feelings of guilt eats away at him. If he’d only found her sooner, then he would have been the one to kill all of those men back before she’d tried to break out. He would have carried the burden of guilt for the blood on his hands and Felicity? She could have remained untouched.  _

_ He’d never wanted the darkness to touch her. He’d worked hard over all these years to make sure that her hands never got so dirty that she couldn’t bounce back from it.  _

_ What if this time he’d been too late?  _

_ When she doesn’t respond, he taps her forehead lightly.  _

_ “Just promise me that you’ll talk to me if things get too loud up here so that I can help you,” he says.  _

_ She grabs his hand and kisses his palm. “I promise,” she says. “Thank you for coming for me.”  _

_ “As if I would ever  _ not _ come for you.”  _

_ **** _

**2021**

“When is Daddy gonna wake up?” Ella asks. 

“I’m not sure, Baby,” Felicity says, lifting Ella up and putting her on her hip so that she’ll stop pulling on Oliver’s arm trying to climb up onto the med-bay table with him. Ella’s technically too big to carry anymore, but Felicity makes it work. “Daddy needs to rest some more. He’ll wake up when he’s feeling better.” 

“Will he be up after gymnastics?” she asks. 

Gymnastics, right. Because it’s Saturday. The girls both go to gymnastics on Saturday mornings. Oliver usually takes them because he and Digg like to box at the same community center on Saturdays. It’d been a way for them to keep in shape once they’d all retired and shut down the lair. 

“We’re not going to gymnastics today,” she tells Ella, who promptly frowns at her. 

“We can still go,” Ella says. “You can drive us.” 

“We can’t,” she says, unsure how to explain to her daughter that they can’t leave the lair because they aren’t sure that it’s safe yet. 

“Why not? I almost have my cartwheel on the beam and Daddy said when I do that, he’ll take me out for ice cream,” Ella says with a pout. 

Felicity looks around for some support, but everyone else is scattered to their own corner of the lair working on one thing or another. 

“We’ll go next weekend, okay?” she promises. “Daddy will be better by then. He’ll take you.” 

Ella doesn’t look satisfied, but she accepts that she’s not going to get her way and lays her head down on Felicity’s shoulder. 

“Can I cuddle with Daddy?” she asks. 

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Felicity says. “There’s a lot of wires and tubes that we need to be careful of.” 

“I’ll be careful,” Ella promises. 

“I don’t know, Baby.” 

“Please? It’ll make him feel better,” Ella says. 

“I’m sure it will, but—” 

“It will,” Ella says, with a nod of her head. “Come on, Mommy. Let me down so I can help Daddy.” 

Felicity relents, because as much as she’s worried about all of the wires and the IV, she also knows that Oliver would be highly offended if he woke up and was informed that Felicity had denied cuddle time. No matter how Oliver is feeling, he’s never once not wanted to cuddle. There had been one time, when Grace was only 2 that Oliver had cracked several ribs after being pushed off a roof, but he’d still let Grace climb all over him and fall asleep on his chest. 

“Don’t touch any of the wires or pull on his IV,” Felicity says as she puts Ella down on the table and helps her get comfortable. 

“It’s okay, Daddy,” Ella whispers into his ear before placing a kiss on his cheek. “I’m right here. I’ll protect you from the monsters until you wake up.” 

“That’s very brave of you,” Felicity tells her, leaning over to give her a kiss on the top of her head. 

“Yeah,” Ella says with a shrug, like it’s no big deal. “You can go rest now. He’s in good hands.” 

Ella waves Felicity off, and she can’t help but scoff. She’s not comfortable leaving Oliver’s side. Not until he wakes up, but the look on Ella’s face says she means business and Felicity guesses that watching from his bedside versus watching from her computers across the room isn’t that different. 

“Make sure you take good care of Daddy,” Felicity says, reluctantly backing away. 

Ella nods in agreement, but continues waving Felicity off. 

“Sleep, Mommy. You’re no good to anybody if you’re tired,” Ella says, repeating something that she must have picked up from one of them because there’s no way she’s come up with it on her own. 

“Okay. I’m going to get some work done first, then I’ll go to sleep,” Felicity says. 

Ella rolls her eyes, as if to say, ‘if you must.’ 

Felicity turns around and sits down at her computers, checking in on all the searches she had running. The Star City Sentinel ran a story about the three boys who’d been kidnapped last night. They were being released from Starling General this morning with only minor injuries, thanks to the Green Arrow and his team. No mention of Oliver’s injury, which means either the boys hadn’t talked, or they’d been gone before Oliver was shot. Either way, it’s a relief. Letting the city know that The Green Arrow is down for the count is never a good idea. The last thing they need is for every criminal to come out of the woodwork and start causing chaos because they don’t think anyone will stop them. 

The searches she’s running on The Final Order in an attempt to nail down a location or a name of their leader continue to come up dry. The search she’d started last night on Uncle JoJo and The Council have yet to yield anything except for decades old news reports from Gotham. Currently, there’s nothing for them to go on. It’s really for the best. Oliver needs time to heal, and until then, she doesn’t want the rest of the team out there having to fight either terrorist organization. 

Felicity’s phone rings and she glances down to see that Anna is calling her. 

“What’s up?” Felicity answers, assuming that Anna is going to tell her about the latest demand from the board or some crazy thing one of the employees had done. 

“Felicity? You have to come here. Now,” Anna says. 

“What? Why? What’s going on?” Felicity asks. 

“There’s something wrong with fusion reactor and it’s… it’s bad. Listen, you just need to get here, okay? Curtis is freaking out and we can’t get a hold of Sanchez,” Anna says, sounding frantic. 

Felicity’s heart skips a beat at the news. If there’s something wrong with the fusion reactor, it could be devastating. Like, destroy at least half of the city levels of devastation. 

“What’s going on with it?” she asks, already standing up to track down her shoes. 

“Oh god, I’ve gotta go,” Anna says. “Listen. Just get here ASAP!” 

The phone call ends before Felicity gets a chance to say anything else. 

“Frack,” she says, putting the phone in her pocket and picking up her jacket and purse in one hand and her shoes in another. Her mind is alreading going a million miles a minute through every potential problem and solution. She’s thinking of all the worst case scenarios and how they can stop them before anyone gets hurt. Because this has the potential to be bad. 

She wishes she knew what the problem was. That Anna hadn’t hung up the phone so quickly, but even if she hadn’t, she’s not sure that Anna would have been able to relay the problem to Felicity. Anna is a marketing major, she’s no scientist.

“I’ve gotta go into work,” she calls out so that everyone can hear her.  

“What?” Donna says, standing up from where she’d been in the corner with Quentin. “You can’t leave. You said it was dangerous.” 

“It is, but it’s Palmer Tech. There will be security there along with hundreds of witnesses. The Order isn’t going to try anything there. I’ll be fine,” Felicity says. When her mother doesn’t look convinced, she adds, “It’s an emergency, or I wouldn’t go.” 

“I’ll come with you,” Digg volunteers. 

“No,” Felicity says. “Oliver needs you here.” 

Roy and Thea move to stand and join her, but she turns to them and glares. “And I need you two to stay here and watch my family. I’ll be damned if anything happens to them.” 

“You’re not going out there alone,” Roy argues. 

“I won’t be alone. Curtis is there, along with some of the top security in the world. Oliver and Digg saw to that. My office is practically a fortress. I’ll be fine,” she promises them. “I’ll deal with whatever the problem is and I’ll be back in a few hours.” 

“You’re leaving?” Grace asks. 

“I have to go into work for a little bit,” she explains. “But everyone else is going to stay and watch you and Ella. It’ll be fun. I bet your grandma will paint your nails if you ask her to.” 

“I thought the bad men that hurt Dad were out there, that’s why we couldn’t go home,” Grace says. 

“They won’t get to me,” Felicity promises, pulling her in for a hug. “I’ll be back in a few hours.” 

Grace sighs and hugs her back tightly, but doesn’t argue any further. Felicity then moves over to the med bay table and gives both Oliver and Ella a kiss on the forehead. 

“Bye, Mommy,” Ella says, completely oblivious to the obvious tension in the room. “Have a good day at work.”

Felicity says goodbye and heads out to the garage where she’s parked her car. Thea comes running after her. 

“What kind of emergency is it?” she asks. 

“There’s some problem with the fusion reactor, which, you know, could level the city if it goes off accidentally and I don’t really fancy Palmer Tech going out like Star Labs, nor do I want to see anyone get hurt. So, as you can see, I have to go in,” she explains as she digs her keys out of her purse.  

“You think that it may go off?” Thea asks, giving her a terrified look. 

“I have no idea, Anna didn’t give me much to go on,” Felicity says. “I won’t know anything until I get there and can assess the situation.”

“Isn’t that more of a reason for one of us to come with you?” Thea asks. 

“No,” Felicity says, unwilling to let any of them come with her. If she’s walking into a potentially dangerous situation, she’s certainly not going to bring along anyone that she cares about. “If it does go off, I want you and everyone else as far away from it as possible.” 

“Felicity—”

“I’m serious,” she says. “There’s nothing any of you can do to help, unless you’ve suddenly become an expert in nuclear energy?” 

“I can’t just let you walk out the door,” Thea says. “What if something happens to you?” 

Felicity stops for a second when she realizes how truly scared Thea is. She pulls her into a hug. 

“I’m going to be fine,” Felicity says. 

“And if you’re not?” Thea asks, pulling back. 

“Then… Then tell Oliver and the girls that I love them,” she says, pushing down the anxiety in her chest that this could really be it. If there honestly is a disaster with the fusion reactor, then she may not be able to fix it. “Thea, I need you to promise me that you’ll get everyone out of town safely if I call you and tell you to.” 

“I’m not promising you that,” Thea says. “You’re my sister, Felicity. I’m not just going to leave you behind.” 

“And those girls in there are your nieces. They need you more than I do. Promise me, Thea. If it comes down to it, promise me you’ll choose them,” she says. 

“Oliver would kill me,” Thea says. 

“Oliver and I made each other the same promise years ago. He’ll understand,” Felicity says. “Now, I have to go. Please,  _ please _ don’t follow me. For all we know, this is nothing. I’ll go into the office to find out it’s a false alarm and I’ll be back in no time.” 

Thea nods, albeit reluctantly and pulls her into one more hug. 

“I love you,” Thea says. “Be safe.”

“I love you, too,” she says before pulling back and getting into her car. 

Thea remains where she is, watching Felicity back out of the garage and doesn’t move, even when the doors begin to close. Felicity feels bad for leaving. Thea’s been shaken, ever since Oliver got shot last night, but she knows that Roy will look out for her. 

She feels especially bad leaving when Oliver hasn’t woken up yet. Selfishly, she’d wanted to be the first face he saw when he woke up. She wanted to reassure herself that he really would be okay. However, she’s still the CEO of Palmer Tech and she’d been the one to approve research on the fusion reactor. If something is wrong with it, it’s her responsibility to go in and try to help stop whatever it is that’s about to happen. 

It’s time to work. There’s no telling how much time she has to fix whatever has gone wrong. If Curtis is already working on the problem and hasn’t been able to fix it, she’s not sure what she’ll be able to do, but she’ll have to do something. 

She will not be responsible for the death of anyone else. 

Felicity speeds across town, breaking several laws getting to Palmer Tech, but 15 minutes later she arrives. She parks her car and walks as fast as she can into the building without raising any heads. The last thing she wants is to panic any of her employees, but the truth is… Felicity is panicked. 

She pushes the button on her private elevator and breathes a sigh of relief when the doors open right away. Typically, she hates that she has a private elevator. It makes her feel elitist and distant. She keeps it around because the board insists on it, but normally, she rides the regular elevator with everyone else. Today, she’s grateful that she doesn’t have to wait as the elevator stops at all 60 floors. 

She gets off at R&D, expecting to find the entire team in a panic, but all she finds is Anna. 

“What’s going on?” she asks confused why nobody is working on the problem. “Where’s Curtis?” 

“I’m so sorry,” Anna says, and Felicity realizes that she’s been crying. Her eyes are bloodshot, her nose is red, and her bottom lip is quivering. 

“What’s wrong?” Felicity asks, moving to step closer, but Anna takes a step back from her. It’s then that Felicity notices she’s holding herself weird and she’s still wearing her coat. 

Anna looks around nervously. Felicity notices how her hands are struggling to remain still. It’s like she’s scared she’s being watched or something. Felicity glances around the room for any sign of anything out of place, but finds nothing. 

“Anna,” she says in a warning tone, feeling her stomach drop. 

This isn’t about the fusion reactor… or at least, if it is, it isn’t an accident or a malfunction. Anna has done something awful. The thing Felicity can’t understand is  _ why _ . 

They’ve known each other for a long time. Anna has been her executive assistant for the last 9 years. Over that time, Felicity has gotten to know her very well. They are friends. In fact, since she got back from her time away, Anna’s been one of the only people she’s felt 100% comfortable around. 

She’s a good person. She shows up to work on time, cares about her job, and most importantly, cares about people. She’s the kind of woman who cries when somebody else cries. She pays into those “Sponsor a Child” foundations practically every time a commercial comes on the TV and at the moment she’s up to 30 kids. She volunteers at the animal shelter on the weekends. She’s a  _ good _ person. 

“Anna,” Felicity repeats her name, this time demanding a response. “What have you done?”

“They threatened my family if I went to anyone,” Anna whispers, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” 

“Who threatened your family?” Felicity asks, trying to figure out what they are looking at. Is this coming from The Final Order, The Council, or a new player she doesn’t know about? 

When Anna just shakes her head in fear, Felicity says, “Whoever it is, I can help you.” 

Anna looks at the ground guiltily. “The Final Order,” she whispers. 

“What?” Felicity asks, dumbfounded. Anna isn’t even Jewish. The Final Order doesn’t target anybody that’s not Jewish. They have no reason to come after her. There’s no reason to threaten her…

The realization of what’s happening hits Felicity hard and she’s paralyzed with debilitating fear. This isn’t about Anna at all. It’s about Felicity. 

They had all gone into hiding last night, knowing that The Order would retaliate now that they know Oliver is The Green Arrow. With all of the Queens in hiding, The Order hadn’t been able to touch them. So they’d found somebody who could. Somebody who Felicity would trust enough to leave the safety of her fortress for. 

God, she’s such an idiot. 

She hadn’t even questioned it. 

Anna had called and she’d come running. Why wouldn’t she? Anna is her friend. Felicity had trusted her. Felicity had trusted Palmer Tech to keep her safe. The intense background checks that all of the employees go through and the over the top security of the building promises that no member of The Final Order could make it past the front doors. However, they hadn’t needed to make it past the front doors. They’d simply needed to find somebody with high enough security clearance to make it through the building undetected. 

And who better than the Executive Assistant to the CEO? 

It’s genius, albeit diabolical. 

“I’m so sorry, Felicity… After everything they put you through before… But they told me they would kill my family if I didn’t do this,” Anna says.  

“Do what, exactly?” Felicity asks, dreading the answer. 

Anna moves her hand into her pocket and pulls out what looks like a detonator. 

“Oh, Anna,” Felicity says, sucking in a breath. She doesn’t mean for it to sound accusatory, but if the way Anna’s eyes flash in anger is any indication, that’s exactly how it comes across. 

“You would do the exact same thing if they threatened Oliver or the girls,” Anna says. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t. They’re going to kill my sister! My parents!” 

“Of course. You’re right,” she says, holding up her hands defensively, praying that she can calm Anna down before she does something that will have permanent consequences for both of them. “If somebody threatened my family, there isn’t anything I wouldn't do.” 

This, Felicity can say, with utter certainty, as she’s been in Anna’s shoes. At least, she’s known the feeling of being forced to do something unthinkable because there’s a gun pointed at somebody you love. 

“Just tell me what they want so that I can help you,” Felicity says, as calmly as possible, even though she’s practically shaking with fear. “So far, nothing’s been done that we can’t come back from.” 

“That’s the thing, Felicity,” Anna says. She begins crying again as she opens her jacket to reveal a bomb strapped to her chest. “I’m not sure you can help me.” 

Felicity’s pulse rate instantly increases with the confirmation that Anna has brought a bomb into the office. That she’s brought it into R&D where it will cause the most damage. If the bomb goes off here, it will cause a chain reaction that will bring down the entire building. And if the fire manages to get through the high security vault where the fusion reactor is? The city could be leveled. 

“Anna, don’t do this. There are innocent people in this office. You’ll be killing more than just me,” Felicity begs, trying to appeal to her friend’s morality. “If it’s me that you want, then kill me. But please, don’t detonate that bomb.” 

“I don’t want to do this,” Anna says, shaking her head. Felicity can see that’s the truth with how her hand is trembling over the detonator. She’s terrified. 

That makes two of them. 

“So don’t,” Felicity pleads. “Put down the detonator and I’ll help you.” 

Anna shakes her head, but Felicity can see that she’s starting to lose her resolve. Felicity can talk her out of this, she just has to find the right words to say. 

“You said that they threatened your family. Do they have them now?” 

“No,” she says. “Not yet.” 

“Let me call somebody,” Felicity says, pointing to the phone that’s hanging on the wall. She knows better than to make any sudden movements, lest she scare Anna and she detonates the bomb. “I know people who can protect your family. They can get them to a safehouse while we work on a way to get you and I out of this mess.” 

“You can’t fight them,” Anna says. “You have no idea the resources they have.” 

“I  _ can _ fight them,” she says, forcing her breathing to remain even. The last thing she needs right now is a panic attack. She can’t think about her family and what it would do to them if she died. She can’t think about all of her staff and how they’ll get killed if this bomb goes off. She has to be brave. There are people counting on her. 

Felicity has to be the hero. 

She can do this. Giving inspirational speeches and convincing people to be brave used to be her M.O. She hasn’t seen that girl in a long time, but she  _ can _ do this. She has to. If she wants to get back home to Grace and Ella, she doesn’t have a choice. She won’t let her daughters lose their mother. And Oliver… he’s lost so many people he cares about. She refuses to be another name on that long list. 

“I know The Green Arrow,” Felicity says, finding her resolve. Her voice grows stronger and her body stops shaking. “Tell me what you know and I can call in the vigilantees. We will fix this. Nobody has to get hurt.” 

“I can’t,” Anna cries. “I can’t loose my family.” 

“And they can’t lose you,” Felicity says, pointedly. “You’re a good person, Anna. The world needs you. Let me call for help and get your family to safety. Then we can get this bomb off of you and discuss options.” 

“Why would you want to help me?” she asks. “I betrayed you. I abused your trust and now I’m threatening your life.” 

“I know this isn’t you. It’s The Final Order,” Felicity says, making sure that she meets Anna’s eyes. If she can just keep her eye contact, she can force Anna to remember that Felicity is a person. That Felicity is a friend who she can trust, then she can keep her from detonating the bomb. “Like I said. Nothing has happened yet that we can’t come back from.” 

“If I don’t do this in 10 minutes, they will remote detonate it,” she says. “And if that happens, they’ll blow up my house, too.” 

Anna’s finger twitches over the detonator and Felicity sucks in another breath. When her friend doesn’t push the button, Felicity breathes a sigh of relief and starts to think. 

She needs a solid plan. She cannot let this bomb go off. There are over a thousand people in the building at any given time. No matter what, she can’t let those people die. However, she has no idea how to incapacitate Anna. Felicity isn’t Oliver. She can’t shoot arrows through people’s arms to make them incapable of moving their fingers. 

What she can do, is defuse a bomb. 

Felicity takes a deep breath and forces the last of her nerves down. If Anna is going to trust her, Felicity has to appear like she’s in control of the situation. 

Felicity has to  _ be in control _ of the situation. 

“I can make sure that doesn’t happen,” Felicity says with confidence she hasn’t felt in years. “I need you to trust me and hand me the detonator.” 

“You’ll call your friend? You’ll call The Green Arrow?” Anna asks. 

“Right this second, if that’s okay with you,” she says, moving her hand slowly towards the phone, asking for permission. 

“Don’t tell him why,” Anna says, looking panicked. “Please! He’s going to think I’m a horrible person.” 

“He won’t,” Felicity promises. Anna continues shaking her head no. “Anna, I won’t tell him you’re involved. Okay? But he can help your family and I know that’s what you want. I don’t want to see them get hurt.” 

Anna nods, giving her permission and Felicity immediately picks up the phone to call Digg, grateful that his is one of the few numbers she has memorized by heart. He picks up on the first ring. 

“Hello?”

It takes everything in her not to lose it the second she hears Digg’s voice, but she can’t. Anna still has the detonator and she needs to stay calm until she can get Anna to let her defuse the bomb. 

“It’s Felicity,” she says. “We need The Green Arrow.” 

Felicity knows that Oliver is still out. They would have called her if he woke up and her phone hasn’t gone off. Still, Anna needs to think that The Green Arrow is going to help her family. As great as Spartan, Speedy, and Arsenal are, The Green Arrow is the one the public puts their trust in. He’s their beacon of hope. If Anna knows that The Green Arrow is unavailable, she’ll be that much less likely to relent. 

“Oliver’s still out. Are you okay?” Digg asks. “What’s wrong?” 

“I don’t have much time to explain, but the Whitmore family is in danger and needs to be taken to a safe house immediately,” she says shooting Anna a reassuring smile. 

“Whitmore? As in Anna Whitmore? Is she okay?  I’m gonna need more here,” Digg says, clearly confused, but Felicity really doesn’t have much time to break it down for him. If Anna is right, The Final Order will remote detonate the bomb in 10 minutes. 

“What’s the address?” Felicity asks Anna, praying it’s close to the lair. She doesn’t know how they’ll possibly pull this off if their house is too far away. 

“305 Henden Avenue. It’s in the Glades,” Anna says. 

“305 Henden Avenue. Hurry,” Felicity says, trying to map out the Glades in her mind and recall how far away Henden is. She can’t remember.

“Felicity, who’s there with you?” Digg asks. 

“Please just get them to a safe place immediately,” Felicity says, purposefully avoiding the question. “I’ll explain everything later. I promise.” 

“Are you hurt? Is The Order there?” Digg asks. 

Felicity could say yes. She could tell him the truth and the team will show up to rescue her. However, there’s no telling how that would play out. Having the vigilantees show up could spook Anna and cause her to detonate the bomb, which would, in turn, kill all of them. The Final Order could see them coming and detonate the bomb themselves. 

It’s too risky. Not when Felicity is fairly certain she can talk Anna out of this, if only she can promise her family’s safety. 

“I’m fine,” Felicity lies, feeling guilty about it. “It’s the Whitmore’s who need your help. Now go! Call me when they are safe!”

Digg doesn’t sound happy about it, but he agrees and Felicity hangs up the phone before he can ask any more questions. 

“Your family will be safe,” she says. “I promise you that. Now, will you let me have the building evacuated so that nobody else has to get hurt?” 

Felicity’s hands are itching to call security. To tell them to get everyone out of the building.

“If they see people evacuating, they’ll detonate the bomb immediately. They won’t wait,” Anna says, her hands shaking over the detonator. 

Logically, she knows that Anna is right. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel the need to at least try… To get as many people out as possible. But there’s no way that Anna will allow that. 

There really isn’t another option. Felicity is going to have to defuse the bomb before it can go off. 

“Okay, I won’t call anyone,” Felicity agrees. “Now can you give me the detonator?”

Anna bites her lip and shakes her head. 

“This isn’t going to work,” Anna says. 

She moves her hands together and starts praying, and Felicity can hear her asking for the strength to push the button. Asking for forgiveness for what she’s about to do. 

“Anna, please,  _ please _ don’t do this,” Felicity pleads. “I will get us out of this. I promise you that I will help you. Just don’t press that button. You are better than this.” 

“I can’t,” Anna cries. “How do I even know that you can do this?” 

“Because I’ve done it before,” Felicity says, causing Anna’s head to snap up in shock. At this point, she figures she has nothing to lose and everything to gain, so she just comes right out and says it. 

“I don’t just know Team Arrow, I’m  _ on _ Team Arrow, okay?” Felicity says. “You just heard me call him. I’ve done this before and I can do it again. You just have to let me. Hand over the detonator. Let me get this bomb off of you. You don’t want to die. Let me help you.” 

Anna hesitates for a few more seconds, but eventually, she hands over the detonator with shaky hands. The second that the detonator is in Felicity’s hands, she opens the casing and begins looking at how it’s rigged so that she can defuse it. She prays that it’ll be a straightforward solution, one that she can handle without having to look up any schematics. They hardly have time for that. 

“Anna, I want you to go over to the phone and call Curtis,” Felicity says. 

“What? Why? No,” she says. “I don’t want him to know.” 

“Curtis works for The Green Arrow, too,” Felicity explains.

“He does?”

Felicity nods. “Occasionally. He’s Mister Terrific. He can help us, too.” 

“I thought you said you could do this yourself?” Anna asks, her breathing starting to increase as she begins to panic. 

“I can, it’ll just be faster if he’s here,” she lies. What she really needs, is for Curtis to come and move the fusion reactor and anything else that may cause a larger explosion in the event that she can’t defuse this bomb and it goes off. 

She would just move Anna, but she can’t risk The Final Order finding out that Anna has relented. She’s positive that there aren’t immediate eyes on her since the bomb didn’t go off the second she handed over the detonator. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t eyes on the door or that they don’t have a tracker on her somehow. 

“Anna, just call him,” Felicity says. “We don’t have to tell him the truth. I can tell him that you were kidnapped and they put this bomb on you themselves. But we need him here.” 

Anna nods and goes over to the phone to call Curtis. When she’s finished, she moves to stand next to Felicity and she has to fight the urge to flinch at how close she is to an insane amount of C4. 

Anna is still trembling, and Felicity knows that she needs to try to calm her down, but currently her entire focus is on trying to figure out the mechanics of the bomb so that she can defuse it. The problem is — and it really is the worst case scenario, but leave it to The Final Order to be thorough — the bomb appears to have an inertial detection devices that will detonate the bomb if the wiring is disturbed. Felicity has a lot of ideas on how to deactivate the detection device so that she can defuse the bomb, but every one is just as likely to fail as it is to succeed. 

“Why do they hate Oliver so much?” Anna asks. 

“What?” she says, only vaguely paying attention to Anna. 

“Oliver,” Anna repeats. “The Final Order really hates him. That’s why they wanted me to hurt you. To hurt him. I tried to explain that you two were divorced, but they didn’t care. They know Oliver is still in love with you. I just don’t get it. Why do they hate him so much?” 

“Because he refuses to let them gain power in this city,” Felicity says, looking up from where she has the detonator opened up at one of the work tables. “They want him gone so they can put a more impressionable mayor in his place.” 

It’s not a lie persay. It’s more than likely their plan. But it’s not the entire truth either. However, she can hardly tell Anna that Oliver is The Green Arrow and that The Final Order knows it. 

“Is that why they kidnapped you two the last time?” Anna asks. 

Felicity grimaces at the question. 

It’s not. The Final Order weren’t the ones to kidnap them five years ago, but that’s the story that had been spun to the press. Felicity had been taken by The Final Order. They’d asked for a ransom and Oliver had been sent her location, telling him that they’d kill her if he went to the police. So he went to save her himself, getting himself kidnapped in the process. It’s hardly what happened, but the truth of what they’d endured in Syria and Israel and at whose hands wasn’t something the public needed to hear. 

Thankfully, Anna senses that it’s not something she wants to talk about and lets it go. 

“I didn’t want to do this, you know,” Anna says. “You’re a good person and one of my best friends.” 

“I know,” Felicity reassures her. “You were trying to protect your family.” 

It’s true. She does know that, given another choice, Anna never would have given in to a terrorist organization. However, there’s very little that people won’t do for the ones they love. She of all people should know, love has the power to destroy even the best of people. 

“I was. I would never have helped them otherwise,” Anna says. 

“I believe you,” she says, refocusing her attention back on the bomb. 

If Anna was telling the truth and they really had 10 minutes until The Order remote detonated the bomb, Felicity guessed they only had about 5 minutes left to get this figured out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments mean the world to me and keep me motivated to actually finish this beast of a story! So thank you so much! I love hearing all of your thoughts- what you've enjoyed, what shocked you, what theories you have! Keep 'em coming!


	14. Swallow Your Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks, as always, to the lovely Emisfritish for her help with this story! I couldn't do this without her!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

**2021**

_ At the first sight of the Iraqi-Syrian border, Oliver stops the car and gently shakes Felicity awake. It kills him to wake her up when she’s sleeping peacefully, knowing it’s probably the first restful sleep she’s had since being kidnapped. However, he doesn’t have another choice. He can’t just leave her sleeping in the car while he goes off in search of a way past the border.  _

_ “What? Whatisit?” Felicity mumbles as she comes out of her slumber, rubbing her eyes.  _

_ It’s such a familiar sight. How many times has he woken her up over the years to get this same reaction? He can’t help but smile. Despite everything, she’s still his Felicity and it’s a relief. He doesn’t know what he’d have done if the woman he brought back home wasn’t his wife.  _

_ “Hey,” he whispers softly, not wanting to startle her while she’s still not fully awake.  _

_ “Hmm?” she responds, closing her eyes again, fully intent on going back to sleep.  _

_ Oliver runs a gentle finger from her temple down the side of her face, careful to avoid the swelling of her cheek.  _

_ “It’s time to wake up now,” he tells her, moving to rub her upper arm, trying to keep her from falling back asleep.  _

_ She moves to roll over, which causes her head to smack against the window. Oliver winces in sympathy as she groans.  _

_ “Are you okay?” he asks.  _

_ Felicity turns to look at him, confusion clouding her eyes as she takes in their surroundings. He watches as realization begins to set in and soon she’s shooting up in her seat in alarm.  _

_ “Where are we? Is everything okay? Did they find us? Are we safe?” she begins asking in rapid fire, and he can hear her becoming breathless as the panic begins to set it.  _

_ It breaks his heart. For the past 3 weeks she’s had to live in a constant state of fear.  A fear he couldn’t protect her from. Even now, with him right here beside her, she’s hyperventilating.  _

_ “Hey,  _ hey _ ,” he says, grabbing her face gently and forcing her to look him in the eyes. “It’s okay. Everything is okay. I’m right here. You’re safe.”   _

_ “Safe?” she says, confused.  _

_ Her voice sounds distant, like she’s stuck in a memory instead of right here with him. He knows the feeling well. It used to happen to him all the time when he first got back from the island. He tries to remember what, if anything, used to help him.  _

_ There was a breathing exercise that Tatsu taught him — a form of meditation to help push the bad memories out of his mind — but it’d never really worked for him. If anything, the most grounding force was being surrounded by the people he cared about. Hearing their voices calling him home while he fought off the worst of his demons to find his way back into the present.  _

_ Perhaps that’s what Felicity needs. Something to ground her in reality.  _

_ “You’re safe,” he repeats. “I’m right here. Just breathe. You’re safe.”  _

_ It takes him a few minutes to get her calmed down enough to process that she’s really here and not being held captive. Once she finally does, she blushes and looks down in embarrassment.  _

_ “Sorry, I’m not sure what that was,” she says.  _

_ “Well, when it used to happen to me, Digg called it PTSD,” he says, pulling her in for a hug as best he can with the middle console in the way.  _

_ “Are you admitting you have PTSD?” she asks, a teasing tone in her voice, letting him know that she’s coming back to herself.  _

_ “I’ll admit no such thing,” he says, pulling back to wink at her.  _

_ He’s relieved when he sees her crack a smile, even if it’s only a small one.  _

_ “The border is right up ahead,” he tells her, getting back to business now that she’s fully calmed down. “I’m going to go check it out. Stay here, and if anyone comes, try to hide.”  _

_ “I want to go with you,” she protests, just like he knew she would.  _

_ “Felicity,” he says, looking down at her battered frame and shoeless feet. “You’re in no condition to outrun anything should we need to. Just let me check it out first. I’ll come back for you. You know I will.”  _

_ “It’s not you I don’t trust,” she tells him, looking out the window, clearly scanning for threats.  _

_ “He’s not here,” he tells her, hating that there was ever a ‘ _ he’ _ to fear in the first place. Felicity shouldn’t ever have to fear for her life, let alone because of her own father. “He’s never going to touch you again.”  _

_ “Okay.” Felicity nods, trusting his words completely, and that? It does something to him. It always does. Her faith in him is probably what he loves the most about her.  _

_ Oliver leans over to give her a kiss. He intends for it to be a short one, but she reaches out and grabs him by the back of the neck to hold him close. He doesn’t protest, happily opening his mouth to allow her tongue access.  _

_ It’s been too long since they’ve had this. Oliver wants nothing more than to curl up with her in his lap and worship every inch of her until she feels nothing but love. He wants nothing more than to spend hours erasing every bad memory and replacing it with ones of pleasure, comfort, safety, and light.  _

_ But there will be time for that later. Time when they aren’t stranded in a foreign country. Time when they aren’t trying to hide from whatever Abraham has planned for them. Once they are home again, they’ll have all the time in the world. Oliver will make sure of that.  _

_ For now, he has to focus his attention on getting them back home to their family safely.  _

_ “You’re distracting me,” Oliver says, pulling away with a loving smile so that she knows he’s not angry.  _

_ “I’ve missed you,” she tells him. It’s not the first time she’s said it today, but he can’t hear it enough.  _

_ “I’ve missed you, too.”  _

_ “I’m still waiting for that date you promised me,” she says.  _

_ Oliver looks at her, confused. He hasn’t promised her a date today. Not that he wouldn’t. Now that she’s back in his arms, he’s planning on giving her thousands of dates. Dates filled with candles. Dates filled with roses. Nights under the stars. Days sitting on the beach with their toes in the sand and waves creeping closer and closer... _

_ He’s going to give her the world. He wants to cherish every moment they have together because if this experience has shown him anything, it’s that they don’t necessarily have forever, even if it’s their intent.  _

_ “The morning I was kidnapped… You promised me a date,” Felicity says, giving him a sad smile. “Don’t tell me you forgot. I’ve been holding onto that.”  _

_ “I didn’t forget,” he says, reaching out to take her good hand in both of his. And okay, he had forgotten. But to be fair, he’s had a lot on his plate recently just trying to keep one foot in front of the other. “I’ve been distracted.”  _

_ “What else could you possibly have had going on?” she asks, teasing him.  _

_ Oliver shrugs. He wants to be able to joke about it already, but he’s not there yet. He’s not sure he ever will be. He knows that Felicity likes to hide her pain with humor. It makes it easier for her to process through things if she can joke about it. However, he just can’t. Nothing about her getting kidnapped and hurt will ever be funny to him. _

_ For the 17 days he was without her, the world stopped.  _

_ “I know I’m just delaying the inevitable, and you really do have to leave,” she says, leaning down to kiss the back of his hand, where it’s still wrapped around hers. She then leans her head against his hands and closes her eyes, like she always does whenever she doesn’t want to hear what he’s about to say.  _

_ “I do,” he says reluctantly.  _

_ “I’ll be okay,” Felicity says with a nod, clearly trying to convince herself more than him.  _

_ “You will,” he reassures her, squeezing her hand.  _

_ “Okay.” She nods, gathering up all of her strength, and seeing her look so scared is almost enough to convince him to stay. Under any other circumstances, he wouldn’t leave her side when she’s like this. However, they won’t ever make it home if he can’t get them across the border safely. _

_ “I won’t be long,” he promises her.  _

_ “I’m going to hold you to that,” she says, before leaning over and giving him one last kiss. “Now go, before I change my mind.”  _

_ Oliver opens the door and gets out of the car, but doesn’t let go of her hand until he absolutely has to.  _

_ “I love you,” he tells her.  _

_ “I know.” She smiles, looking mighty proud of herself for making a Star Wars reference.  _

_ Oliver just rolls his eyes at her, and tells her, “Lock the doors and stay down low.”  _

_ “I will,” she promises.  _

_ He’s about to close the door when he hears her add, “And Oliver?”  _

_ “Hm?”  _

_ “I love you, too.”  _

_ **** _

**2026**

Felicity stands over the open detonator, trying to figure out a way to defuse the bomb without setting off the inertial detection device. Beside her, Anna is breathing heavily into her ear and it’s not helping her concentrate in the least, but Felicity isn’t about to snap at a girl who’s got C4 strapped to her. 

“Woah!” Curtis says, stepping off the elevator. “What’d I miss?” 

Felicity looks up to meet his wide eyes and he gives her a look that says, ‘Is this what I think it is?’ 

“Yes, it’s a bomb. Yes, I’m working on defusing it. Yes, it’s The Final Order’s doing. We have about 3 minutes left before it goes off,” she answers all of his unasked questions in rapid fire. “You are here to get the fusion reactor out of the building, along with anything else that might trigger a larger explosion.” 

“You said you would stop it!” Anna cries, and if possible, her eyes go even wider in fear. 

“And I will,” Felicity says, backpedaling to keep Anna from freaking out. Felicity puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

God, she’d forgotten this feeling. Forgotten how hard it is to remain calm under pressure when that pressure isn’t just a board meeting or a new product launch. When the pressure is a big-bad intent on tearing the city apart and thousands of lives in the balance. She doesn’t have time to worry about her brain to mouth filter when she’s so tempted to give up, curl up in a ball, and cry. However, she has to. 

She  _ has _ to. 

This is her responsibility and she’ll be damned if she fails. 

“I will,” she says again, this time with a more reassuring tone. 

“Curtis?” she adds through a forced smile, waving him along, hoping that he doesn’t ask too many questions and gets to work immediately. There’s only so much time for him to clear the building with the reactor. 

“Right,” Curtis says, immediately snapping out of his shock and setting to work. 

It’s one of the things that Felicity appreciates about him the most. He’s chatty — possibly more chatty than she is — however, he works incredibly well under pressure and his years working on Team Arrow have taught him how to remain calm in life and death situations. She can tell he has about a million more questions he wants to ask, but realizes there isn’t time for explanations, so he keeps any comments not immediately relevant to himself.  

“Do you know what you’re working with?” he asks as he sets about the complicated task of getting the fusion reactor out of the high security vault. 

“I know how to defuse it, I just haven’t figured out how to bypass the failsafe,” she tells him. “They’ve put an inertial device on it to make sure anything I do sets it off anyway.” 

“What?!” Anna exclaims. 

“It’s going to be fine,” Felicity tells her as calmly as she can, even if it’s a lie. “You have me and you have Curtis. Between the two of us, we’re going to get this figured out.” 

“Have you thought about—” Curtis starts to say, but she knows what he’s about to suggest and she immediately shakes her head. 

“There’s not enough time for that. I could—” 

“Not without blowing us up,” Curtis cuts her off. “You could always—” 

“I thought about that, but there’s only a 50% chance of it working,” she says. 

“I hate when you two do this,” Anna says. “Could you please not go all science nerd-brain twins on me right now so I can follow the conversation and know just how badly I need to freak out.” 

“You have C4 strapped to you. I’d say you can freak out,” Curtis says. 

“Curtis!” Felicity exclaims as Anna starts hyperventilating again. “Not helping!” 

“Right. Sorry, Anna,” he says sheepishly before turning back to Felicity. “You could always freeze it.” 

“What?” Felicity asks. 

“Well the entire system is electronic,” Curtis says. “If you could get it cold enough, you would prevent the electrons from being able to move, therefore the device couldn’t set off the bomb.” 

“At least as long as it stayed that cold,” Felicity says, nodding her head, starting to piece together a plan, even if it still had some very obvious holes in it. “If we wanted to stop the electrons from moving completely though we’d have to reach absolute zero, which is impossible.” 

“Impossible-ish,” he says. “But I don’t think you’d have to actually reach a true absolute zero. I mean, the device would start shorting out long before that. There are reports of electric cars not starting when it’s cold enough and there was the whole problem we had with that shipment of Palmer Watches not working after that huge snowstorm.” 

“That was because the condensation fried the equipment,” she explains, shaking her head. “But I think you’re onto something. Really, if we can cool the semiconductors enough then the electrons would get stuck and couldn’t transmit a signal.” 

“No more bomb,” Curtis says. 

“No more bomb,” she repeats, confident in the plan they’ve come up with. It’s still not 100% foolproof, but it’s the closest they are going to get. “Do we have liquid nitrogen anywhere?” 

“We work with a bunch of science nerds,” he says, looking highly offended. “Of course we have liquid nitrogen.” 

He hurries away from the vault to go into a storage closet, coming back a few seconds later with large tank. He sets it down on the ground in front of Felicity and removes the top, looking at her expectantly. 

“I’m not doing this until you’re gone with the fusion reactor,” she tells him. “There’s still a chance this might not work and I’m not willing to risk half the city.” 

“How high is that chance of this not working?” Anna asks nervously as they watch Curtis quickly make his way through each of the many steps to open the vault. 

“It’s going to work,” she says. 

“You just told Curtis there’s a chance it might not!” Anna protests. “Listen, I know you’re trying to coddle me right now. You’re talking to me like you do the board when they are being especially needy. Tell me the truth. How likely is it that we’re about to die?” 

Felicity honestly doesn’t have an answer to that question. Even with her nightly extracurriculars, it’s not like she makes a habit of freezing bombs. Sure, there was that one time with Roy and the Count, but that had been pure dumb luck. This? This has the benefit of slightly more time to think through the science of it all, but it’s still no guarantee. 

“I don’t know,” Felicity answers honestly. “But Curtis and I both think it’s our best option and the theory behind it is fairly solid.” 

“I don’t want this to be what I’m remembered for,” Anna says, causing Felicity to look up at her, waiting for her to explain herself more. “I don’t want to be the girl that blew up Palmer Tech. I don’t want my parents to see this.” 

“Anna,” Felicity says, feeling her own heart start to break for the woman she’s grown to care deeply for over the past several years. She grabs Anna’s hands in her own and looks her straight in the eyes. “Sometimes good people do awful things. That doesn’t make them awful people.” 

Felicity’s surprised to find that the words don’t sound like a lie. If anything, they feel empowering. 

“I just wanted to protect my family,” Anna whispers. 

So did I, Felicity thinks. Her mind travels back in time. To her father pointing a gun at Oliver. There had been no good solution. Only a choice between the lesser of two evils. And she’d made that impossible choice. 

And she’d do it again. 

“I’m in,” Curtis says, snapping her out of her memories and back to reality. 

He quickly steps out of the vault holding the heart of the fusion reactor. It’s crazy that something with the power to take out half the city can fit in the palm of Curtis’s hand. It doesn’t seem possible, and yet, it is. 

“You’d better hope you’re still at Olympic levels of athleticism because we don’t have much time left,” Felicity tells him.  

“I’ll be fast,” he promises, coming over to give her a kiss on the cheek. 

“Curtis,” she says, unable to keep herself from tearing up. If this is about to be her last few moments on Earth, she’s going to need him to deliver a message to her family. 

“Don’t worry, they already know,” Curtis says, saving her from having to voice it. He’s always known her better than almost anyone. It’s what makes him such a good friend.

“I’m not sure they all do,” she says, shaking her head. 

“Well, remember that when you survive this,” he tells her. 

Felicity nods, and says, “You have to tell them if I don’t.”

He agrees, though she can tell it kills him to make any sort of promise that involves her dying. He hugs her, squeezing her tight. 

“You’ve always been a hero to me,” he whispers in her ear. “Now, be that bad ass you claim to have always been.” 

She can’t help but chuckle as he pulls back. She wipes her eyes and watches him say a quick goodbye to Anna before high-tailing it out of there. 

“How much time do we have?” Felicity asks, picking up the detonator and holding it over the liquid nitrogen with shaky hands. She needs to give Curtis every last second she can to make it clear of any blast. 

Anna looks at the clock on the wall. 

“No more than a minute,” she whispers, tears are falling down her face. “Are you sure about this?” 

“Not really,” Felicity says through a somewhat hysterical laugh, finally losing it now that the prospect of death is less than a minute away. “But it’s our only chance.” 

Anna nods, and reaches out for her hand. 

“I’m so sorry,” Felicity apologizes through a sob. “I’m sorry that they threatened your family to get to mine.” 

“I’m sorry I let them,” she says, attempting to wipe away her tears but they just keep falling. “But our families are safe now. Whatever happens, they are safe.” 

“Yeah,” Felicity agrees. 

No matter what happens, she’d gotten the fusion reactor out of there. If the bomb goes off, it will take out the entire floor, and possibly some more. If it hits a gas line or any other flammable equipment, the whole building could go. But it won’t be half the city. It won’t reach the lair. Her family is safe. 

Her daughters will survive. Oliver… her mother… They will all be okay. 

They both say a quick prayer and then Felicity lets go of the detonator and holds her breath as it sinks into the liquid nitrogen. 

********

Oliver wakes up to the familiar feeling of a solid weight drooling onto his chest and a little hand covering half of his face. When he opens his eyes, he’s not the least bit surprised to see Ella snoring away against him. He holds back a chuckle, not wanting to wake her. She’s never been an elegant sleeper. Her brown curls are going every which way, tickling his neck and obscuring her face from view. 

Careful not to wake her, he grabs her wrist and lowers it so that she’s resting her hand against his chest instead of smacking him in the face. He then reaches around to pull her hair out of her face and push it off of her neck the best that he can. He knows how sweaty she can get under all of that hair. Sleeping next to Ella is like cuddling a furnace — has been ever since she was a baby — but Oliver wouldn’t have it any other way. 

He kisses the top of her head lovingly as he runs his fingers through her long, unruly hair, relishing the moment. He doesn’t get too many moments like this anymore with his girls. They are getting older now and don’t need him as much as they used to. There are less monsters under the bed. Fewer stormy nights where they’re crawling into his bed to hide from the thunder. 

They are more confident now, less dependent. It’s everything he’d ever wanted for them. 

Still, he can’t help but savor the feeling of his youngest curled up into his side. It’s certainly one of his top three favorite ways to wake up. The other two, predictably, being waking up next to Grace or Felicity. 

“Leave my daddy alone,” she mutters in her sleep, burrowing her head deeper into his chest as she attempts to grab a handful of his skin and pull him closer, grumbling to herself about his lack of shirt. 

Little Ella — his fierce protector. He’s always joked that Ella may take her job as Oliver’s self-appointed bodyguard more seriously than Digg does. 

Oliver buries his face in her hair and inhales the strong scent of her shampoo. He can’t help but smile. She always comes back from nights with Felicity smelling like lavender — smelling like Felicity. After years of waking up next to Felicity — years of that scent being permanently seared into their bedding — there’s few things that give Oliver such a strong feeling of home. 

“I said no peanut butter,” she mumbles, her hand going up to smack him in the face as she moves around to rub at the drool on her face. “Get it together, Bowen.” 

At this point, he can’t help but laugh, which sends a shooting pain to his side, but he ignores it for the moment in favor of watching his daughter in amusement. Ella may be small, but she’s always been a bossy little thing. Not unlike Felicity. And he can’t lie. Hearing her sass little Andrew Bowen gives him immense joy — even if it’s just in her sleep. 

His movements cause her to squirm. She moves her head off of his chest and pokes him, hard. 

“Stop laughing, I’m sleepin’ here,” she grumbles. She then takes the arm that’s settled against her back and brings it around so that she can wrap both of her arms around it and hug it tight, nuzzling into his shoulder much like Felicity used to do. 

  
Of their two children, Ella really does take after Felicity the most. It always causes him to do a double take. It fills him with a bittersweet feeling of gratitude. As much as the reminders cause him to miss his ex-wife that much more, he’s grateful that he at least gets to have a part of her close by in Ella. 

“Sorry, Princess,” Oliver whispers, kissing the top of her head. 

“‘S okay,” she mutters, about to slip back into whatever dream she’d been having involving peanut butter, Andrew Bowen, and Oliver in danger. 

Then, suddenly, her little head pops up and she looks at him in surprised delight. 

“Daddy!” she yells loudly, giving him the biggest smile he’s ever seen. “I told Mommy that cuddles would help! You’re awake!” 

“Cuddles always help,” he agrees without needing to know the context of the situation. Oliver’s always believed that cuddling with his girls can solve any problem. 

He happily accepts each of the many kisses Ella proceeds to give him while his mind catches up to everything. 

They are in the lair. He’s lying on the med-bay table rather than a cot. There’s a sharp pain in his side, which would explain the med-bay table, if it doesn’t explain why his daughter is here. What happened and how long has he been out for?

“Everyone was scared, but I knew you’d wake up,” Ella explains. “Grace! Grandma! Grandpa Q! Daddy’s up!” she yells, unfortunately right into his ear. 

“Mommy said you needed rest, but I told her you needed cuddles,” Ella says, looking mighty proud of herself as Grace comes peeling around the corner, running at them top speed. 

“And where is your mom?” Oliver asks, feeling anxious but unable to put his finger on exactly why, yet. It’s more than just an inability to piece together what he’s doing here or why his daughters are here. There’s something bigger that he’s missing. 

And Ella hadn’t said Felicity’s name when she’d yelled for everyone. Shouldn’t Felicity be here? Shouldn’t the rest of the team be here? 

“Dad!” Grace yells, flinging herself over the table so that she can hug him. He hugs her back, while her shoulders shake. She’s crying, and he has no idea why. 

Is it because he’s hurt or is it something else? 

“Mommy’s at work,” Ella tells him with a shrug. She then starts petting Grace’s hair, “It’s okay. Daddy’s awake now. I told you he’d wake up.” 

“He was shot,” Grace says, standing back up and wiping her tears. Still managing to roll her eyes at Ella, even while crying. “Excuse me for not believing you.” 

Shot. 

It hits Oliver suddenly. He’d been standing in an alleyway where they’d just rescued the three boys who’d been kidnapped. Oliver had sent John to the hospital with the boys while Roy and he stayed back to track down any remaining Order members. He’d been so worried about something that he hadn’t been as vigilant as he usually is. Somebody had shot him from behind. 

What had him so distracted? 

“Oh Oliver, thank god you’re awake,” Donna says, making her way into the room, Lance hot on her heels. He notices her red rimmed eyes, but chalks it up to the stress of him being injured. Donna always has been more emotional than the rest of them. 

However, when he sees the look on Lance’s face Oliver knows he’s missing something. 

They are missing someone. Several someones. 

Thea, Roy, and Digg not being here makes sense. They’re probably out on a mission, trying to track down The Order. But Felicity? She wouldn’t be at work while the rest of them are out on a mission. She runs the coms. The only way she would allow any of them out in the field without her at her trusted computers where she can watch out for them is if… 

“Where is she?” he asks, sitting up and ignoring the sharp pain doing so causes him. 

He remembers now. Felicity hadn’t been answering her phone. Nobody had seen her for hours and he’d been worried that The Final Order had gotten ahold of her. 

Is that what happened? Is that where the rest of the team is? 

He stands up, only to have Donna push on his shoulders, attempting to get him to sit back down. 

“You’re going to pop your stitches,” she tells him sternly, but he ignores her and looks to Lance. 

“Where is she?” he asks again. 

He knows for certain now that something is wrong. He can sense it in the way Donna and Lance keep glancing at each other, silenting debating if they should tell him. 

“Mom called and Uncle Digg, Aunt Thea, and Uncle Roy went after the bad men,” Grace says. He can hear the fear in her voice and it has his heart racing. 

“Tell me The Order doesn’t have her,” he practically growls as he pushes his way over to Felicity’s computers. 

“You’re bleeding!” Ella cries, running after him, while Donna continues to try and pull him back to the med-bay table. 

“She’s fine,” Donna says, but she doesn’t sound convincing in the least. 

“Where is my wife?” he asks, glaring at Lance and Donna. He’s so overwhelmed with worry and rage at the prospect that she’s been taken while he’s been out that he doesn’t even notice he’d forgotten to add an ‘ex’ in front of the word wife. 

“Why don’t you sit down and let us patch you up again while we fill you in on what you’ve missed,” Lance says, gesturing to Ella and Grace who are both staring at the bandages on his side that are now soaked through with blood. 

“Are you gonna die?” Ella asks, her bottom lip trembling. 

It causes him to take a step back and really look at the situation. Ella has gone white and looks like she’s going to pass out at any moment. Grace has half her face hidden in her shirt and is shaking her head repeatedly. They are both absolutely terrified. 

“Of course not,” he tells them, but it hardly reassures either of them. 

Grace begins crying into her shirt. She crawls under Felicity’s computer desk and closes her eyes tight. Ella just starts tugging frantically on Donna’s sleeve, asking, “Can you fix him?” 

Despite the fact that all Oliver really wants to do is throw his suit back on and tear his way through every Order member until he finds Felicity, he can’t do this to his children. He grabs Ella and picks her up before sitting down and letting Donna tend to his wound. 

“Hey, you’re not going to lose me,” he says into Ella’s ear, rubbing soothing circles on her back. 

“Promise?” she asks, sounding so much younger than usual. 

“I promise.” 

He has to force himself not to hiss when Donna peels back the bandage. It hurts like hell, but showing his pain won’t do anything to reassure his daughters. 

“Sorry,” Donna says, clearly sensing his discomfort. He shakes his head. It’s fine. It’s hardly the worst thing he’s ever had to endure. 

“Grace, come over here,” he says. 

Grace just shakes her head and refuses to open her eyes. It causes a wave of guilt to crash over him. He’d done this. He’d put that look of terror on her face. He’d caused her to be so scared that she’d retreated into herself. 

In all the ways Ella is Felicity’s daughter, Grace is his. She’s a Queen through and through. She runs when things get too much. She has a difficult time processing her emotions. Her biggest fear is losing somebody she loves, and here he is, seemingly bleeding out right in front of her. 

Oliver knows that it’s not that serious. It’s a flesh wound. A bad flesh wound, but still, a flesh wound nonetheless. Years of experience has helped him learn the difference between injuries that could kill him and those that just hurt like hell but he’ll live through. This is the later. 

Still, there is a lot of blood and he can only imagine what that looks like to an 8 year old. 

It looks like he could die. 

“Grace, please look at me,” he pleads with her. 

Grace opens her eyes reluctantly and looks up at him. “I promise you that I’m going to be okay. Alright? It’ll take a lot more to bring me down than this.” 

“You can’t kill The Green Arrow,” Ella says, lifting her head from his shoulder and rubbing her eyes. Clearly, all it had taken to restore her faith had been a single promise. If only Grace could be so easily convinced. “Daddy’s a superhero.” 

“What?” he asks, confused. At what point did the girls learn he was The Green Arrow? He supposes it makes sense. If they are down in the lair, they would have seen the suits. It still doesn’t answer the question what they are doing down here in the first place. 

“The girls know you’re The Green Arrow,” Donna whispers to him, to which Oliver simply raises his eyebrows. As if he hadn’t figured that one out for himself. 

“Okay, but he’s not Superman or The Flash,” Grace continues, having obviously not heard anything after Ella spoke. “He’s human, which means he can still die. Heroes die all the time.” 

“And heroes also come back to life,” Lance says, before Oliver has a chance to respond. 

He watches as Lance crawls under the desk and next to Grace, who allows her grandfather to pull her into his lap. “That’s the cool thing about your dad. He  _ is  _ human. The Flash can heal quickly and Superman is an alien. But your dad? He doesn’t have any superpowers, but he’s died before and he’s still here.” 

“You died?” Grace asks looking up at him in confusion, looking him up and down, clearly trying to find answers. 

Oliver shrugs, unsure of how to answer that question. Grace doesn’t need to hear the details of the many times in which he’s been near death. The times he’s been sure he wouldn’t make it. The times he’s flatlined. The times he’s been legally declared dead. 

He settles for a simple nod, and is grateful it’s enough to satisfy her for now. She turns back to look at Lance in wonder. 

“That’s what makes him such a good hero,” Lance says. 

If you had told Oliver several years ago that Quentin Lance would be sitting here telling Oliver’s daughter — his granddaughter — about how Oliver was a hero, he would have laughed and said it was impossible. Yet, here they were. 

“His love for you guys, for your mom, for his family… this city? It keeps him alive. Keeps him fighting,” Lance continues and Oliver can’t help but feel a grateful for the man’s words. “And right now? Your dad has to help your mom. So he’s not going to die. There’s still work to be done.” 

Grace nods her head, and Oliver is happy to see that she’s no longer freaking out, because there really is work to be done. 

“What’s going on?” Oliver asks, back to business.

“The Order knows who you are, that’s why we’re all hiding down here,” Lance says, crawling out from under the desk and bringing Grace out with him, who promptly moves to plaster herself to Oliver’s side. 

“And Felicity?” he asks. 

Lance and Donna share a look before Donna nods and Lance moves over to turn on one of the computer screens. On it, SCNN is discussing a breaking news report on Palmer Tech. Oliver sits up in his seat, ignoring the way Donna complains about how she’s not finished yet. 

“Turn it up,” Oliver orders, to which, Lance complies. 

“...With more on the story, we have Cynthia Reynolds live on the scene. Cynthia?” 

The screen switches from a view of the studio to a young reporter standing on the outside of a police blockade across the street from Palmer Tech. Behind her, Oliver can see employees running out of the building, hysterical. Several are trembling, having to be carried out by others. More are crying. Some are even flinging their arms around them like they are fighting off an invisible attacker. 

“About a half-hour ago, the fire alarm went off in the main building at Palmer Technologies here on 85th and Neil. Witnesses say as soon as the alarm went off, the sprinkler system was activated. The Star City Fire Department responded to the call within minutes, but has yet to identify the source.” 

“Is that where Digg, Thea, and Roy are?” Oliver asks. 

“Not exactly,” Lance says, causing Oliver to turn away from the screen and look at Lance in confusion. 

“Where  _ exactly _ would they be?” he asks, annoyed. 

“Felicity called before all of this started and said that the Whitmore’s were in danger and needed to be moved to a safehouse,” he said. 

“Whitmore? As in Anna Whitmore, Felicity’s EA?” Oliver asks. “How would she know that? What was she even doing at Palmer Tech in the first place if The Final Order is after everyone?” 

“Somebody called Felicity to tell her there was an emergency at work,” Donna says. 

“We tried calling the others to tell them to get to Palmer Tech, but they are currently knee deep in Order members and can’t get away. I was about to leave to try and help when you woke up,” Lance says. 

“...None of which explains the erratic behavior of the employees who are all visibly rattled. Many are being hospitalized for what paramedics are calling extreme panic,” Cynthia says, and Oliver’s attention goes back to the screen, trying to figure out what it is exactly they are dealing with. 

“Mom?” Grace says, staring at the screen in shock, while Ella watches in confusion. 

“Why are the firemen at Mommy’s work?” Ella asks. 

Oliver shakes his head and continues watching the screen.

A frantic employee comes up and steals the microphone from Cynthia. Oliver recognizes the man. He’s the head of legal and has been for years. Oliver met him at a Palmer Tech business dinner years ago, back when he’d still been married to Felicity. He’d always seemed like such a level headed guy, except now, he’s raving like a lunatic. 

“There were so many men in black! They were zombies! Their eyes were red and they tried to kill us! They wanted to kill us all! Then a bat came out of nowhere! A giant bat!” 

“What the hell?” Lance asks, and they all look on in confusion. 

“Okay, sir,” Cynthia says, taking the microphone back forcibly. “As you can see, employees are quite distraught here. No word from Palmer Tech CEO, Felicity Smoak, or anyone from their team…” 

“Watch the girls,” Oliver tells Donna while he walks over to where he’s Arrow jacket is hanging up on the mannequin. He’s still wearing his leather pants. 

“Daddy!” Ella calls after him. “You can’t leave. Mommy said you needed to sleep.” 

Oliver kneels down to Ella’s level. “I’m going to go help your Mom. I’ll be back soon.” 

“Hello?!” Oliver hears a familiar voice as the back door swings open and slams shut again. “Oliver?! Man please tell me you’re here!”

Oliver rushes to see what the problem is, and is surprised to see Curtis standing against the door, putting all of his weight against it, as if somebody is trying to force their way in. 

“Oh good, you are here,” Curtis says, looking relieved. “We have a problem.” 

At his words, a several loud pounds can be heard both at the back door and at the garage door, letting Oliver know that they have more than just  _ a _ problem. They have several problems. 

“So you brought it here?” Oliver growls, looking back at where his daughters are standing with Donna and Lance.

Curtis looks over to where the girls are and then back to Oliver, looking sheepish before laughing awkwardly. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he says, holding out his hand where he’s holding some sort of techno-equipment. “Do you mind hiding this?” 

“What is it?” Oliver asks, taking it out of Curtis’s hands. 

“The main piece to the fusion reactor,” he says, trying to sound nonchalant. 

Oliver nearly drops it in shock, but manages to keep a hold on it. 

“The explosive piece?” 

If looks could kill, Curtis would be dead on the spot. As it is, Oliver can’t afford to kill him at the moment. He’s going to need all of the help he can get fighting off whoever Curtis has lead right to the lair. 

“Trust me when I say I had nowhere else go to and I didn’t know they would be here,” Curtis says pointing at the girls. 

Before he can respond, the elevator door dings and Oliver’s blood runs cold as he watches several men in military-grade gear get off, right where the girls are standing. 

Ella let’s out a blood-curdling scream as one of the men grabs her around the waist. Oliver can think of nothing else but protecting Ella and Grace, but he doesn’t have a weapon on him. Thankfully, Lance does. He puts two bullets in the man without even blinking. 

“Get them out of here!” Lance orders Donna, who quickly grabs the girls and attempts to pull them away, but there’s nowhere to go. They are trapped. 

Oliver doesn’t waste any time. With one hand on the fusion reactor, he jumps over the one of the lower weapons cabinets, grabbing a gun as he goes. His side screams in protest, but he barely feels any of it. Not when there are men within arm’s reach of his kids. 

He fires off several shots, taking at least 3 men down as he makes his way over to the girls. 

“Daddy!” Grace yells as one man tries to pull her out from behind Donna. Ella begins hitting the man’s arm with her tiny fists, demanding that he let go of her sister. 

Oliver raises his gun, but he can’t get a clear shot. 

“Oh no you don’t, you son of a bitch,” Donna says, punching the man in his face, causing him to stumble backwards where Oliver promptly shoots him. 

“There’s a sub-basement over there,” Oliver says, pointing to the southwest corner. “Get them down there and lock the door.” 

He hands Donna the fusion reactor and tells her to be careful. Lance and Oliver put themselves in between the girls and the men. They try their best to cover them as they move to the sub-basement door, but it’s difficult when there are men coming at them from all sides. 

“Daddy,” Ella cries, digging her fingernails into his thigh and trying to squeeze herself in between his legs. He nearly trips over her. 

“It’s okay,” he says through gritted teeth. The situation is far from okay, but he can’t tell his daughter that. He reaches around him blindly to run a comforting hand through her hair, his other hand firmly on his gun, pointed at the men coming at them. 

“They’re getting closer,” Grace says, poking him repeatedly in the back. 

If it were anyone else, he would make a snappy comment about how he can clearly see that, but it’s his daughter and she’s 8. He can hardly expect her to remain calm in a life or death situation. 

“They won’t get you,” he promises her. “I’m going to protect you.” 

One of the men reaches out to grab Ella’s arm, but Oliver shots him before he’s able to get a firm grip. He ignores the shocked gasps from the girls. 

“They are off limits,” Oliver warns the men, who all have their eyes firmly on Ella and Grace. It’s like they know all they need to do to win the battle is get their hands on one of them and Oliver will give them whatever they want. 

“Hand over the tech and we’ll have no reason to touch them,” one of the men says, pointing a gun at Oliver’s hip, where Ella is looking around him trying to catch a peak. He promptly pulls her back behind him completely. 

“That’s not how this works,” Oliver tells them. One of the men shoots at him, narrowly missing him, and it causes a series of gunfire to go off on both sides. 

“Is it just me, or are these guys incredibly bad shots?” Lance whispers in his ear, not taking his eyes of the approaching men. 

He has a point. There’s no reason why 20 plus men with guns haven’t been able to land a single shot on them yet. Oliver may be good, but he’s not that good. Especially when his movements are limited with having to play shield to the girls. 

“Are you complaining that they haven’t shot us?” Donna whispers, clearly annoyed at her husband. 

Another man reaches out to grab at Grace, and Lance promptly takes him out. 

“You’re bullies!” Ella yells at them, causing several of them to chuckle. 

“She’s cute,” one of the men says. “I’d hate to have to put a bullet between her eyes.” 

“You’re not going to touch them,” Oliver says, breathing a sigh of relief when they make it to the sub-basement door. 

Donna opens it and pulls the girls inside before shutting the door. He can hear Grace and Ella screaming out for him, but he ignores it. They are safe for the moment. So long as the door stays closed, nobody can get to them. The sound of the heavy duty lock sliding into place loosens the heavy knot of worry that had been his stomach. 

Now that the girls are not in immediate danger, he can properly take these intruders out. 

“Stay here and guard the door,” Oliver tells Lance, who nods in agreement. 

Oliver wastes no time. He immediately makes his way into the crowd of men and begins taking them out, several at a time. Guns go off, but it’s nothing Oliver can’t handle. Now that he’s not having to play human shield and he has full range of movement, he’s easily able to take them down. 

“I can’t hold them off anymore,” Curtis cries from where he’s still attempting to prevent their entry at the back door, but within a second the door slams open and even more men enter the lair. 

“What’s the plan here, Oliver?” Lance calls out to be heard over the sound of all the fighting and gunshots. 

“Go back in time and tell Curtis that coming here was a bad idea?” Oliver yells back, throwing several punches and taking a few more men out. 

“Oh yeah, like I had any other choice,” Curtis yells back, fighting off his own men and holding his own a lot better than Oliver would have expected. Clearly he’s stayed in shape. “Do these men look like the kind of guys who would use their powers for good?” 

“It’s called a  _ secret _ lair for a reason, Curtis!” 

“Yeah? And it’s also called nuclear war, which I’d like to avoid!” 

“Can we stop fighting each other and figure out how in the hell we’re going to punch our way out of this one?” Lance says. 

Oliver lands a solid punch against one of the men and kicks him in the chest hard, forcing him to fall back into another man. He then shoots both men. The gun doesn’t have the same finesse that his bow and arrow does, but it works well enough. 

“Where’s Felicity?” Oliver asks, grimacing as one of the men lands a solid hit right at his side. There’s no way any of his stitches are surviving this. 

“I left her back at Palmer Tech with the bomb.” Curtis goes flying to the floor as he’s punched in the face and rolls out of the way just as a shot is aimed at his head. 

“You left her with the what?!”

****

Felicity coughs around the smoke that filters up from the ground below and ignores the way the water from the sprinkler system burns her eyes. She pushes as hard as she can on the door, but try as she might, it won’t budge. Just like the last 5 doors that she’s tried. She pounds on the door until the sides of her fists are bruised, screaming for help that won’t come. 

She can barely breathe around the smell of chemicals in the water. By now, there’s a solid inch of water covering the floor. Her clothes are soaked through and she’s shivering. Her heart feels like it’s about to explode out of her chest. 

Explode is a poor choice of words. It only causes the panic to increase. 

“Please proceed to your nearest emergency exit and remain calm,” the automated PA system informs her. 

“Easy for you to say!” she yells out in frustration. Her words cause Anna to whimper from where she’s huddled under one of the desks, paralyzed with fear. 

The fire alarm continues to blare and the emergency lights flash, providing them with their only source of light outside of the small bit of sunlight coming in from the window down the hall. Felicity swears she can see things moving in the dark, but whenever she moves to get a closer look, nothing is there. 

She grabs the phone off the wall and attempts to dial out, but it — just like the others she’s already tried — has been fried by the sprinkler system. 

“Damnit,” she cries, throwing the phone at the wall. 

Nothing is working like it should. 

Nothing. 

$80 million dollars spent on renovations to make Palmer Tech one of the safest buildings in the country, and it’s a joke. The fancy architect they’d hired to improve the fire compartmentation promised, under no circumstances, was anybody ever in danger of getting locked in when a floor goes into lockdown mode. The push bar exits on every door guarantee as much. Still, here they are. Locked in. 

She can’t see straight, everything has an eerie haze to it. 

“We’re gonna die here,” Anna says through a sob. 

“Stop talking,” Felicity says, glaring at the woman. 

She moves to wipe the water off her face, hoping to clear her vision, but it does nothing. It won’t get better until the sprinkler system shuts off. And the sprinkler system won’t shut off until the alarm does. 

“Screw it,” Felicity says. She drags a chair from one of the desks over to the wall and rips off her blazer. She then climbs up onto the chair and begins fanning the smoke detector in a desperate attempt to shut off the alarm. 

“The bomb didn’t even go off!” Felicity yells. “This shouldn’t be happening.” 

“We’re gonna die here,” Anna repeats. 

“Then get up and help me! I’m gonna need my partner in crime right now,” she says. “Where’s the girl who regularly stands up to board members and tells them to—” 

Felicity shrieks as something reaches out and grabs her around the wrist. Instinctively, she yanks her arm back and starts swinging as she steps backwards and falls right off the chair. 

“Felicity!” Anna yells, finally leaving her self-made fortress to rush to her side. “Are you okay?” 

“What the hell was that?” she asks, scrambling backwards and pulling Anna along with her. 

Anna screams suddenly and starts punching at an invisible force. Felicity pulls Anna behind her and scans the room for any threats. A flash of red eyes has her whimpering before they quickly disappear again. 

“It’s a ghost,” Anna says. “Is that even possible?”

“Ten minutes ago, I would have said no,” Felicity says, keeping her eyes open for any sign of moment. 

“Your city’s gonna burn,” a cool voice says right into her ear, causing all the hairs on her arm to stand on end. 

Felicity whips around, calling out, “Who’s there?!” only to find nobody. 

By now, she’s starting to feel dizzy as she struggles to get oxygen into her body. Her throat is closing up around the smoke that shouldn’t even be there. 

None of this is real, she tells herself. It can’t be. 

Her heart continues to race at an unnatural pace and she realizes that it’s not the cold that has her shivering. It’s the fear. 

“Klara…” the voice taunts her. 

“No,” she whimpers, stumbling backwards until her back hits the wall and she slides down it to curl up in terror. She covers her ears with her hands and shuts her eyes, reminding herself to breathe. This isn’t possible. He’s not here. He’s dead. 

Ghosts aren’t real. 

This is all just a trick her mind is playing on her. 

Something grabs her around the ankle and begins pulling her away. Felicity starts screaming and reaching out for anything to hold onto. She digs her fingernails into the tile, but it doesn’t work. The invisible force continues to pull her further down the hall. 

“Felicity!” Anna yells, running after her. 

Anna kicks at whatever has a hold on Felicity and thankfully, it lets go. They hear the ghost groan as Felicity scrambles to her feet. When they look down, a figure materializes out of thin air. The figure looks up at them and his face is horribly distorted and his eyes are glowing red. 

“Oh my god,” Anna says, digging her nails into Felicity’s forearm. 

“Run!” Felicity yells as the figure gets to his feet. 

They both sprint down the hallway as the zombie-man laughs mechanically at them. Felicity can hear his heavy footsteps behind them as he splashes through the quickly flooding floor, but she doesn’t dare look back. They both struggle to stay upright and slide into the walls at every corner, but they keep going. 

Anna pulls open one of the office doors but immediately shrieks and slams the door shut again, throwing her weight against it. 

“What is it?” Felicity asks. 

“A dementor?” Anna says in disbelief. Her eyes are wide and she’s trembling. 

Felicity’s arm is grabbed and she’s pulled against the wall violently while a hand makes it’s way around her throat. She sobs when she looks into the zombie-man’s eyes and sees nothing but darkness. 

Is this what true evil looks like? 

She’s never seen anything like this outside of a horror movie. She claws at the man’s hands and Anna begins hitting his back, demanding that he let Felicity go. 

“Little Klara Sokolski,” he sneers. 

“Get. The. Hell. Away. From. Us!” Anna yells, hitting him over the head with a hole-punch. 

His grip on her loosens as he stumbles and Felicity falls to the ground gasping for air. She accidentally inhales water and it burns going down her throat. She coughs, trying to clear her lungs. She’s terrified. She can’t breathe. This can’t be how it ends. 

The room dims around her while Anna tries to pull her back up to her feet to no avail. 

The man reaches out to grab Felicity again, but is pulled backwards. She can’t see much, but she can hear the sound of fighting. Can hear punches landing and more than one man hitting the ground hard. It’s comforting in a way it shouldn’t be, but it’s familiar. How many nights has she sat on the coms listening to Oliver fight? 

She can’t see him, but she doesn't have to. She knows it’s him. He’s come for her. He’s here to save the day. 

She pushes up on weak arms and stumbles to her feet, immediately falling against a wall when her legs prove to be too shaky. 

“They won’t be able to protect you,” the man says. “Your precious masks. They won’t be able to stop what’s coming. You’ve put your faith in the wrong people, Klara.”

She turns to see him laying on the floor constricted by wires. 

When did Oliver get new trick Arrows? 

“Go to hell,” Felicity says, her voice hoarse. 

“Oh no, that would be your precious city. This world is going to burn and you’re on the wrong side,” the man says. 

She’s about to tell him to shut up, when Anna kicks him in the head and knocks him unconscious. 

“Okay,” Felicity tells her, as the world starts to spin uncontrollably fast. “You’re totally forgiven. Well done, team.” 

She falls backwards, unable to hold her own weight anymore and falls right into a pair of strong arms. 

“I’ve got you.”

“Oliver?” she whispers. 

“Stay calm,” he says, adjusting his grip on her so that he can lift her off her feet. Instinctively she curls up in his arms and wraps her arms around his neck. He smells different than she remembers. Less musty, more leather. 

“You’ve been poisoned,” he says.  

Her entire body is trembling uncontrollably and everything is starting to go black. 

“Felicity,” he says, but it sounds different. Distorted. She wants to look in his eyes one last time, tell him that she loves him, but everything is so dark. 

“Stay with me,” he tells her, but it’s hard to breathe when her her lungs refuse to expand. 

“Who are you?” Anna asks, which Felicity thinks is a strange question. Anna’s known Oliver for years. 

He doesn’t answer the question. 

There’s glass shattering and Anna gasping, then he says, “You’re gonna wanna hold on tight.”

Felicity pries her eyes open to see what’s going on, and she instantly regrets it when she looks down and finds herself standing in front of a broken floor to ceiling window on the 59th floor. The next thing she knows, he’s jumping and she passes out in fear. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments mean the world to me! <3


	15. Ashes in the Wake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Emisfritish as always for all the beta work! And a special thanks to Dettiot and Acheaptrickandacheeseyoneline for always being there to listen to my crazy ramblings...

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

******2026**

“You’d better hope these guys kill you before I have the chance,” Oliver yells at Curtis as he swings around and shoots another one of their attackers.

“Oliver!” Lance yells and he ducks just as a shot is aimed at his head. He grabs the gun pointed at him and twists it until the man’s wrist breaks then slams the gun back into his face, cracking his nose. Finally, he punches him right in the neck and crushes his windpipe until he falls to the ground. 

“I’m sure Felicity’s disabled the bomb by now,” Curtis yells back. 

If it’s supposed to be reassuring, it’s not. The thought of Felicity alone with a bomb while he’s surrounded by 30 or more men and unable to go to her? It’s what he imagines hell to look like. 

He throws several more punches as he narrowly avoids getting shot. 

“Get that door open!” a voice yells and Oliver turns to shoot the men who have somehow made it to the sub-basement door and are attempting to pry it open, but Lance beats him to it. 

“We could really use some backup!” Lance yells as Oliver is grabbed around the neck by one man and another points a gun at his chest. 

“Who would you like me to call?” he asks. With Thea, Roy, and Digg otherwise occupied fighting off their own army of Order members, there’s nobody close enough. Nobody that could be here in enough time. Even Barry is on the other side of the world at the moment. 

Grabbing onto the arms around his neck as leverage, Oliver kicks both legs off the ground and wraps his legs around the other man’s arm and shifts his body so that when the gun goes off, the man behind him falls to the ground. Oliver goes down with him and slams down hard on his side. The pain is nearly blinding, but he can’t stop. 

He can’t remember the last time he felt so much terror. Typically when he’s in situations like this, he’s able to block out his emotions. When he’s fighting, it’s a question of if  _ he _ is going to make it home alive or not. It’s a question of  _ his _ life. Typically, he’s not the only thing standing in the way of whether his daughters live or die. 

Oliver flips back up to his feet and punches out the man in front of him. He goes down easily. Too easily, if you ask Oliver. But hey, nobody ever accused The Final Order of being well trained. They may be strong in their convictions, but they are hardly League of Assassins. 

“Can we get in touch with ARGUS?” Lance asks as his gun gets pushed out of his hands and a man rams him into the wall and places him in a chokehold. 

Oliver points his gun at the man and shots him, until Lance is stumbling free. Oliver then throws Lance his own gun and picks another one off the ground for himself. 

“You think just because you wear a mask, you can stop what’s coming,” a man calls out to him, standing up on the med-bay table holding a grenade. “The fire is coming and once it does, there’ll be no putting it out!” 

“Get down!” Oliver yells as the man throws the grenade and it goes off, causing several men to go flying, including Lance and Curtis. It also succeeds in blowing a hole through the sub-basement door. 

Oliver starts shooting with much more purpose at every man that attempts to step towards the door. He can worry about the body count later. His no-kill policy doesn’t extend to men threatening the lives of his daughters, mother-in-law, and anyone attempting to get their hands on a device that could take out the entire city. 

Oliver has a split second to breathe a sigh of relief when Curtis starts coughing and Lance starts moving, but that’s all the time he can spare before somebody lands a punch to his side and his entire body gives out from the pain. He stumbles to the floor as he cries out. 

In the distance, he can hear Ella and Grace screaming for him, but he blocks it out. He has to. He won’t be able to focus if he lets himself succumb to the fear that they are about to be taken away from him. Oliver grits his teeth and forces himself to stand up no matter how much his body is protesting every movement. He needs to keep fighting. 

A body grabs him and throws him against a wall. Oliver’s head slams against the concrete and he starts to see stars, but he blinks repeatedly until his vision clears. When it does, he watches as the first man reaches the sub-basement door and puts his arm through the hole to unlatch the lock. 

Oliver knees the man holding him in the nuts and grabs the man’s gun out of the holster and shoots him. 

“Daddy!” Ella cries out while Grace lets out a bloodcurdling scream. Oliver turns and shoots the man, but not before the door swings open. 

“Like hell,” Lance says, standing up and punching out the next man that tries to enter through the sub-basement. Lance then slams the door shut while yelling at Donna to get the girls as far away from the door as possible. 

It’s too little too late, Oliver worries. They’ve managed to take out a decent amount of the men on their own, and the grenade had taken out a bit more as well, but there are still 10 men left. Curtis and Lance are losing steam fast and Oliver can barely stand on his own two feet. It doesn’t take him long to realize that he’s lost too much blood. He’s already feeling nauseous and he’s sweating more than is warranted. It won’t be long before he is too weak to keep fighting. 

Two men grab Oliver and he begins to struggle out of their grip, but it proves much harder to do than with the previous men. These guys are trained. They know how to block all of his attempts to break free of their grasp. 

He can only look on in horror as two men grab Lance and throw him down on the floor and out of the way of the door. Curtis manages to pull one of the men to the floor, but the other one throws the door open and soon three men have descended the stairs. 

“Don’t you touch them!” Donna cries out, and Oliver can hear her punch land, but the following slap echoes up the stairs and Oliver doesn’t need to hear Ella’s cry for the man to stop hurting Grandma to know that she’s been hit. 

He kicks out, struggling against the hold on him, even as he continues to lose strength. He can’t let this happen. There’s no way in hell that he’s ever going to let anyone lay a hand on either of his daughters’ heads or Donna’s. 

He can still remember the day that Felicity had told him she was pregnant with Grace. He’d panicked. Full on panicked. As much as he wanted a child — as desperate as he was to start a family — he’d been terrified at the idea. How could he possibly keep a child safe? How could they bring life into this world when they could barely promise each other they’d be home each night? 

Oliver had no illusions about his job as The Green Arrow. He knew that he could die at any time and he’d accepted that fate. Felicity had agreed to marry him knowing that was his fate. But a child? They didn’t get to chose this life. They would be forced into it. And they deserved far more than anything Oliver could offer them. 

Felicity had set him straight. After forcing him to put his head between his knees and breathe again, she’d told him that there was nobody she would rather bring a child into this world with than him. She’d told him that he was going to be an amazing father because he loved with all his heart and he put everyone’s needs above his own. In the dark of the night, he’d confessed that he didn’t know if he could survive losing a child. He’d lost so many others because of this life, he didn’t know if he’d survive losing a kid. 

But Felicity had promised him that it would be okay. That she wasn’t worried because Oliver would always find a way to protect their child from harm. 

Oliver had promised Felicity that he would never let anything happen to Grace or Ella. 

As the first man emerges from the sub-basement with Ella slung over his shoulders kicking and screaming, quickly followed by another man who has his hand wrapped tightly around Grace’s upper arm, he knows that he’s failed. He’s broken the most important promise that he’s ever made and there’s no way he’ll ever be able to come back from this. 

The third man comes up with Donna in front of him, her arms held up in surrender as a gun is pointed at her back. He winces at the red mark across her face that is already starting to swell. 

Oliver can see Lance struggling against his own men as he apologizes to Donna and she nods and tries to convince him that everything’s alright. Curtis is the only one left standing with a gun in his hand, but he doesn’t seem to know what to do with it now that the men have the girls. 

Ella is set down on the ground where she promptly grabs hold of Grace’s arm with both of her hands and attempts to hide behind her sister. The three men in the room who aren’t restraining anybody all raise their guns and point them at the girls. Oliver can barely breathe he’s so afraid that in any second they will be taken from him. He’s watched a lot of people he loves die over the years, but this is something he will never recover from. 

“Drop your weapon,” one of them orders Curtis. Curtis looks to Oliver and he nods, letting him know to stand down. 

“What kind of sick son of a bitch threatens children?” Donna says, glaring at the men holding her granddaughters. 

“Give us the fusion reactor,” the man pointing a gun at Donna’s back says, jabbing her so hard with it that she stumbles forward. Donna doesn’t say anything, she just stands her ground, closing her eyes tightly. 

In this moment, Oliver can see where Felicity gets her bravery from. Donna is tough. She doesn’t back down in the face of danger. However, this is one battle Oliver isn’t willing to fight. Not when the lives of his family hang in the balance. 

In all his years since the Gambit went down, Oliver has learned how to calculate risk. He’s learned how to read a room and immediately see 10 different paths he could take to get out of any given situation and understands the consequences of each of those actions. He’s reading the room right now and there isn’t a single action they could take that doesn’t end in bloodshed.

“Donna, give it to them,” Oliver says as he struggles against the men’s hold on him. He hasn’t realized until now that he’s actually crying.

“Oliver!” Donna and Curtis say at the same time, looking at him in shock. 

“She can’t just hand over a fusion reactor. Do you have any idea what it could do?” Curtis asks. 

“Give it to them, Baby,” Lance says, nodding at her encouragingly. 

Lance obviously has seen what Oliver is seeing. There’s no way this ends well for them. It’s the girls’ lives or the fusion reactor. At least if they get their hands on the fusion reactor they can come up with a plan to get it back before any damage is done. 

If they hurt the girls, there will be no coming back from that.

“Do it,” Oliver says. 

Donna reaches into the purse she has over her shoulder and pulls out… something. Whatever it is, it looks fancy and technical, but it’s not the fusion reactor. Oliver does his best not to let his shock show, and by the looks of it so do Curtis and Lance. Donna’s taking a huge risk if she’s betting that none of these men saw the fusion reactor earlier and know what it’s supposed to look like. 

“Let my granddaughters go,” she demands, holding the device close to her chest. 

“You’re not in any position to be making demands,” one of the men says, moving the gun he’d previously been pointing at Grace’s chest to her head. 

“I want Mommy,” Ella whimpers, moving to step towards Oliver and the man holding her arm yanks her back roughly. 

“Let them go, please,” Oliver begs, struggling against the men. “They are just kids. We’ll give you the fusion reactor. Just. Let. Them. Go.” 

“Hand it over,” one of the men says, holding out his hand for the device. 

Donna looks to Oliver and he nods, giving her his permission to hand over their only leverage. He has to have faith that these men will hold true to their promise and won’t hurt his girls so long as they get what they want. At the moment, it’s the only option they have. 

Donna places the device in the man’s hands. 

Once he has the device in hand, he turns to the rest of the men. “You know what to do,” he orders as he turns on his heel and walks out of the lair. 

“What?” Curtis says while the man holding Donna practically throws her into Lance’s arms. 

“Let me go!” Grace screams as she’s picked up by one of the men and thrown over his shoulder. 

Ella starts to run towards Oliver but she’s grabbed around the waist and pulled back. 

“We gave you what you want!” Oliver yells, feeling his rage finally explode. A sudden burst of adrenaline gives him renewed strength and he jumps up before leaning over and flipping both men holding him onto their backs. He grabs a gun out of each of their holsters and points one at each of the men holding the girls. 

“You don’t need to do this,” Oliver says through clenched teeth. 

“We were never going to kill your children, Oliver,” the man holding Ella laughs. 

“Then prove it and let them go,” Lance says. He’s shielding Donna with his body while he’s got his own gun trained on the men holding Grace and Ella.

“Let go the only thing we have keeping you in line?” the man says, still wearing a smug grin that Oliver wants to punch off of his face so bad. 

“Daddy, make him let us go,” Grace cries punching the man holding her in the back repeatedly. Ella is still whimpering, but she’s also got a look of pure rage on her face that he’s never seen before. She’s pulling at the fingers of the man holding her, trying to break them. 

“Let me down or you’ll be sorry,” Ella says. It would be a lot more convincing if she weren’t trembling. 

He wants to be proud of her for fighting back. Proud of both of them. But all he can feel is fear that they are going to actually hurt the men holding them and get themselves killed. 

“It’s okay, girls,” he says, holding up his hands in surrender. “Stop fighting them.” 

The last thing he needs is for this to go south. No matter what they may be saying about having no intention of killing the girls, Oliver has seen enough deals go bad to know that intentions aren’t everything. 

“That’s a good hero,” another man says condescendingly. “Do as you're told and your daughters won’t get hurt.” 

The men keep their guns pointed at Oliver, Lance, and Curtis, as they inch closer to the exit. As much as it pains him to admit, Oliver knows that he won’t be able to stop them from leaving. The girls are going to be taken from him. The best he can do is let them go quietly and pray that he’ll be able to find them. 

“No!” Grace screams while Ella calls out for him. 

“It’s okay,” Oliver says, unable to stop himself from crying. “Be good girls. Do as you’re told. I’ll come find you. I promise you that I’ll come get you.” 

“No! My babies!” Donna cries out, sobbing as well. 

“Help!” Ella yells as they both continue to try and break free of the men who have them. 

It would hurt less to be stabbed through the heart than it does watching his daughters walk out the door. He can barely breathe, and right now, he doesn’t even want to try. 

****

**2021**

_ Felicity stays low in her seat, trying not to be seen. Not that there’s anything that can be done if anyone comes. The jeep sitting out there in the middle of nowhere is suspicious enough and sure to attract attention. She just prays that nobody decides to drive by.  _

_ The wind outside is strong, creating the occasional howl and it’s difficult not to jump each time she hears it. Rationally, she knows that she’s safe in this moment. She is away from her father. The men who wanted to kill her are dead and Oliver will be back soon. Rationally, she knows all of these things are true. It’s just hard to stay rational.  _

_ It had been easier when Oliver was still here with her. Easier to stay in the present. Easier to feel safe. Easier to feel brave.  _

_ It’s a lot harder to be brave when there’s nobody else around to be strong for.  _

_ All Felicity wants is to go home. She wants to see her daughters and hold them close. She wants to feel their love and remind herself that she’s not this gun-wielding monster who kills people without a second thought. She’s simply a mother trying to stay alive and get home to her children.  _

_ Felicity wants to see her mother. To reassure herself that she’s alright with her own two eyes. To know that she didn’t die because Felicity decided to trust her father again. Her mother had warned her that Abraham couldn’t be trusted, but she’d been too foolish to listen. Felicity thought she was being cautious but the reality is that she had let her guard down and she’d given Abraham the only inch he’d needed to destroy their lives.  _

_ Felicity wants to curl up in bed with Oliver and feel safe. It’s been weeks since she felt completely safe. She wants to go to sleep without having to keep one eye open. She needs to know that she’s not going to get hurt for saying the wrong thing. Needs to have a meal without worrying it’s being drugged.  _

_ Most of all, she wants to wash the blood off her hands. Wants to let Oliver convince her it’s even possible. She wants to lay in his arms and listen to him whisper reassurances into her ear. Hear him promise her that she’d done the right thing and there had been no other choice. Because right now? She can’t even close her eyes for a second without hearing gunshots.  _

_ Felicity’s not naive. She knows she’s been responsible for the deaths of people before. She’d helped Oliver kill people back when they started working together. It doesn’t matter that all of those people were awful. She’s still played God and made judgement calls about who gets to live and die. But it’s different this time. Before, she’d always been behind a computer screen. She’d never had to shoulder 100% of the blame. She’d never held a gun to a man and watched the life slip out of their eyes after she’d pulled the trigger.  _

_ That’s a nightmare she’s not sure she’ll ever recover from. _

_ She’s never going to be the same, but she wants to go home and pretend. Wants to let Oliver convince her she’s still worthy of being loved. That there are people in her life that want her for more than just whatever mission Abraham is trying to pull her into.  _

_ Felicity just needs to believe that she’s more than her father’s daughter. She’s not a monster… _

_ She jumps and nearly screams when there is a knock on the window, but when she looks up, it’s only Oliver. She unlocks the door and he jumps in on the driver’s side.  _

_ “I’m so glad you’re alright,” Felicity says, accepting the welcoming kiss that he gives her. “What did you find out?”  _

_ “There are men guarding the perimeter, but they are mostly concentrated near the actual border crossing. I did find a vulnerable place where only 2 guards are standing watch. I can take them out and we can climb the fence.”  _

_ “What about the car?” Felicity asks.  _

_ “We’d have to leave it,” he says. _

_ “Leave it? Oliver, it’s another 200 km to the base,” she says, looking at him like he’s crazy. “It’d take us…” she pauses to do a quick mental calculation. “40 hours to walk that.”  _

_ “I’m sure one of the men we take out will have a car,” he says. _

_ “Oliver,” she says his name as a warning. “They probably do have cars. At. The. Border. We can’t just walk up and take one of them. They’ll kill us.” _

_ “You can’t,” he says with a pointed look. “That’s why I’d find a place to hide you while I got us a car. I can fight them off.”  _

_ “And alert them to our presence,” she says, rolling her eyes. “This is not a plan.”  _

_ “Neither is staying in Syria,” he says. _

_ “So I guess that means we are walking then,” she says. “We only have enough water to last a day, but we’ll just have to go without. They say you can survive without water for 3 days—”  _

_ “We aren’t walking,” he cuts her off. She gives him a confused look before he continues. “You don’t even have shoes. I’ll get us a car.”  _

_ She let’s out a deep breath and rubs her temples, trying to figure out an alternative plan that doesn’t involve Oliver taking on the Iraqi army by himself.  _

_ She jumps when Oliver reaches out to touch her shoulder and he quickly removes his hand like he’s been burned.  _

_ “I’m sorry,” she apologizes, feeling embarrassed. “I guess I’m still not used to—” she cuts herself off when Oliver grimaces, and realizes that he doesn’t need to hear the details about her kidnapping. She knows he probably already feels guilty enough with how black and blue she is.  _

_ “I’m sorry,” Felicity says again, reaching out to take his hand and put it around her shoulders. “I promise, it’s okay. I’m just a bit jumpy.”  _

_ “I’m sorry,” Oliver says, tears filling his eyes as he tries to take his arm back but she won’t let him. “I’m sorry I didn’t come—”  _

_ “Shh,” she says, putting a finger to his lips. “It’s fine. You’re here now. We’re both here and alive. And I’d like to keep it that way. So let’s come up with a plan that doesn’t involve you doing anything stupid.”  _

_ “I promised I’d get you home, no matter what,” he says.  _

_ “Yes, and that won’t happen without you,” she tells him.  _

_ “You’d survive.”  _

_ “I really, really wouldn’t,” she says. “I know you like to think that I can do anything, and for the most part, I can. But I’m tech smart. I’m book smart. I can’t live off the land. I won’t last out here without you with me. So  _ new plan _.” _

_ “Okay,” he agrees. “New plan.”  _

****

**2026**

“How could you just let those men take them?!” Donna yells at Oliver once the last of the men has left. He falls to his knees and begins sobbing. 

He knows that he needs to immediately start tracking the men so that he can come up with a plan to save Grace and Ella, but he can’t move. His heart feels like it’s just been ripped out of his chest and all he can hear is the sound of his daughters screaming out for him to do something. 

He should have been better. Of all the times he’s found another way and come out on top… Why now, when it mattered the most, had he been unable to do anything? 

“Come on,” Lance says, sounding like he’s in shock himself. He grabs Oliver under the arms and pulls him up into a chair. “We’ve gotta get you patched up so that we can go after them.”

“They’re gone,” he whispers. He’s too scared to actually say it any louder. Like if anyone hears him, it will make it true and he can’t accept that. He can’t accept this failure.

“We’ll get them back,” Lance says, holding back a sob of his own as he places a new bandage over Oliver’s bullet wound. He needs new stitches as well as a blood transfusion, but that will have to wait. “We will get them back, do you hear me? You don’t get to fall apart right now. Not while there’s still a chance.”

“Did you guys hear that?” Curtis asks, walking slowly towards the garage. 

They all fall silent and listen carefully. For a second, there is nothing. Then there’s a loud smack as something hits the outside wall hard. A second later, a man comes flying through the open garage door. He’s unconscious.

They all run towards the garage as the sounds of fighting become clearer. Curtis is faster than any of them, reaching the doorway first. 

“What the hell?” Curtis says, turning back to them with a confused look. “Did somebody call Batman? Do we know The Bat-Man?” 

Oliver pushes Curtis out of the way and steps outside.

Standing there, in all his black leather glory is Batman and god help him, Oliver has never been more grateful in his life. He’s somehow gotten Grace and Ella away from The Order. Grace is hiding behind him, using his cape as a shield. Meanwhile Ella is in his arms struggling to get out, looking more frightened than she had in the Order’s grasp. Oliver suddenly has a flash of a three year old girl at the zoo sobbing in his arms because they’d walked through a tunnel of bats before learning that Ella was absolutely terrified of the things.  

Fighting off the Order while trying to dodge Ella’s small fists to the face, while Grace pulls on his cape, is no easy feat, but Oliver begrudgingly admits Batman’s handling himself well enough.

“Give them to me,” Oliver orders, as eager to get them back inside to safety as he is to free up Batman’s arms so that he can fight properly. 

Grace runs right to his side and wraps her arms around his legs at the sound of his voice and Ella stops her assault to turn and reach out for him. He grabs her out of Batman’s arms. She immediately wraps her arms and legs around him tightly, burying her face in his neck and crying. 

There’s a part of him that just wants to take the girls and run. To leave Batman to clean up this mess and get the girls as far away from danger as he can get them. He can’t risk losing them again. Not when he’d come so close. 

However, he can’t, in good conscience, leave the man who’s just saved his daughters alone to fight his battles for him — Bruce Wayne or not. Even if he could, The Final Order will keep coming for them as long as his family is still standing. The only real way to protect any of them now is to take them all down. 

“Take them,” Oliver says to Lance, moving back over to the others. 

Oliver attempts to hand Ella over, but she won’t let go of him. She’s surprisingly strong when she wants to be. 

“No, I want you, Daddy,” Ella cries, sending a wave of guilt over him as he pulls at her hands and forces her to let go of him. He can make it up to her later. Right now, he has a job to do. 

“It’s okay,” he says, trying to reassure her as he places her in Lance’s arms. “Grandpa is going to take care of you.” 

Oliver then unwraps Grace’s arms from his legs and pushes her towards the others. 

“Why can’t I stay with you?” Ella asks, while Grace looks up at him, clearly upset but resigned to the fact that he’s going to do this. 

“I need to help Batman fight the bad guys right now,” he says. “But I’ll be back. You’ll be okay.” 

Ella nods her head and attempts to wipe away her tears as Donna rubs soothing circles on her back. 

“You take those assholes down,” Donna says, giving him a stern look.

Oliver nods before turning to look at both Lance and Curtis. “Nobody touches them.”

“If your family reunion is over, I could use some help,” Wayne calls out in the deep voice he uses to disguise his voice. Oliver wonders why, with all of the money he has, he’s never invested in a voice modulator — but they can debate technique later, once The Final Order is taken down and the immediate threat has passed.

“I love you both,” Oliver tells the girls.

Grace nods while Ella continues to cry and reach for him. He attempts to smile reassuringly at them both, but he’s not sure he accomplishes anything other than a grimace. Then, he tells them all to be safe and shuts the door, satisfied when he hears it lock into place. 

“Let’s do this,” Oliver says, taking a deep breath before jumping right into the fight. 

With the two of them working side by side, it’s fairly easy to take all of the men out. Oliver can see the league’s influence in Wayne. It’s clear by the way he moves that he was trained by Ra’s himself. Understanding how Wayne fights makes it easier for them to work together. They are able to anticipate each other’s moves in a way that shouldn’t be natural for two men working together for the first time. It’s almost… seamless. And it absolutely kills Oliver to admit it.

“Is there a reason you’re shirtless?” Wayne asks him, with an amused smirk, once they’ve taken down the last of the men. Oliver glares at him. 

“Is there a reason you’re dressed up as a giant bat?” he says, causing the smirk of Wayne’s face to disappear. Oliver counts it as a win and starts to go back inside to make sure that the girls are okay. 

“Come on,” Wayne says, nodding his head towards the end of the alley where there is a giant black tank parked. 

“This was fun and all, but this isn’t the Avengers and I’m not looking for a team-up,” Oliver says. “I need to get back inside to my family.” 

“You mean the family that I just saved?” Wayne says. “Aren’t you concerned about your wife?” 

At the mention of Felicity, Oliver sucks in a breath. 

“Felicity?” 

In all of the panic, he’d nearly forgotten about Felicity and the bomb that Curtis had left her with. God, it wasn’t as if he could have done anything different. He’d had to stay here and fight. The girls had needed him here. But if anything happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to handle it. 

“That’s fine. I’d be more than happy to take her off your hands,” Wayne continues on with that swarmy smile of his that Oliver hates so much. “But it’s your name she was calling out for in the dark, not mine.”

Oliver clinches his fists and it takes everything in him not to punch Wayne for even implying that he and Felicity were intimate. 

“Where is she?” Oliver asks through gritted teeth. 

Wayne nods his head at the tank again and Oliver takes off towards it at a run. The doors open before Oliver even reaches it and Anna, Felicity’s executive assistant, stumbles out on shaky legs. She’s crying and frantically looking around, like she’s scared something is going to jump out of the shadows at her. 

Oliver looks around for a potential threat, trying to figure out what has her so scared when he sees the flash of blonde in the passenger side seat that makes his heart stop. It’s Felicity. Her eyes are closed, her body is lax. She’s shaking and making small whimpering sounds. 

Oliver pulls her out and into his arms, ignoring the fact that he can barely hold her weight with the way his side is screaming out in pain. She’s soaked through and there’s a smell to her that is vaguely familiar but he can’t place it. It’s certainly not the lavender shampoo he’s used to. It’s more… herbal? Slightly chemical?

“What happened?” he demands as he moves back down the alley towards the lair, needing to get Felicity inside so that he can figure out what is wrong with her. 

“There were ghosts,” Anna says, sounding crazed. She stays close to Oliver’s side. “And dementors…”

Oliver looks at her in confusion. He’s seen a lot of crazy things in his day, but he’s still fairly certain that ghosts aren’t real and that dementors are something out of a Harry Potter novel. Or the time stream if Cisco is to be believed.

“They were poisoned,” Wayne says, offering up a simpler explanation. “All of Palmer Tech was. They put Fear Toxin into the sprinkler system.” 

Oliver has no idea what a Fear Toxin is, but he can imagine well enough for himself. Especially when he considers the terrified look on Anna’s face and the way Felicity is whimpering. 

“And Felicity?” he asks, wondering why Anna still remains upright and mostly functioning while Felicity is nearly passed out. 

“Overdose. She accidently swallowed a bunch of it. Everyone else just inhaled it,” Wayne explains, waving a device in front of the electronic keypad to get into the lair and the lock clicks open. Oliver sends him a questioning look. “You have your toys, I have mine.” 

“Ol-i-ver,” Felicity says through trembling, pale lips, her voice so small he barely hears her. 

“Yeah, she’s been doing that a lot,” Wayne says as he opens the garage door.

“I’m right here,” he tells her. 

Her lips are starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen and he wonders if it’s actually possible to die from fear. If it’s possible that she’s so terrified that she can’t even catch her breath. He prays that she can just stay with him for a few more minutes. That’s all he needs to get some herbs in her system to counteract the effects of this Fear Toxin. 

They step into the door and are met with Curtis, Lance, and Donna all pointing guns in their direction with the girls nowhere in sight. Oliver can only assume they’ve been hidden in the lair somewhere, but he can’t help the way his pulse speeds up when he doesn’t see them right away. 

“Where are the girls?” he asks at the same time that Donna gasps. 

“Felicity?” 

Donna drops her gun to the floor and rushes to Oliver’s side. Lance and Curtis quickly follow suit, tucking their guns into their belts. 

“Where are the girls?” Oliver asks again, but Curtis talks right over him. 

“What happened?!” 

“Ghosts,” Anna says with a far off look.

“Ghosts? Cool,” Curtis says with a smile that causes Oliver to glare at him. “Right. Sorry. Not cool.” 

He walks Felicity over to the med-bay table to set her down while Wayne begins searching all of the nearby drawers that haven’t been turned over in the fight.

“What? No,” Lance says. “I’ve barely wrapped my mind around meta-humans and time travel. You want me to believe that ghosts are real, too?” 

“Where are they?” he asks again. 

“What happened?” Donna asks again, tugging on Oliver’s sleeve, completely ignoring him. 

Everyone is talking over everyone else and it’s so incredibly frustrating. He is on the verge of having a panic attack. He’s just watched his daughters get carried out by The Final Order and he’d been unable to stop it. It’d been sheer luck that Wayne had been there to stop them from being kidnapped. He hasn’t even had time to process the fact that The Order is gone and they are all tentatively safe or that Felicity is laying on the table practically passed out from being poisoned and  _ nobody will tell him where his daughters are _ ! 

“Grace! Ella!” Oliver calls out, frantic. 

“They’ve been dosed with a hallucinogen that induces fear,” Wayne explains to Donna. “We need to make an antidote before this does permanent damage.” 

“I’m sorry,  _ what _ ?” Lance says. 

“Can you fix it?” Donna asks, near tears.  

“What do you need?” Curtis asks, jumping right in to help Wayne look. 

Satisfied that Curtis and Wayne will help Felicity for the moment, he pushes away from Felicity and begins looking under every desk and table.

“Grace! Ella!” 

“Daddy?” He hears Ella’s tentative voice coming from the wall. He ducks down to look in one of the vents, and sure enough, there Ella is, sitting curled up behind the grille. He breathes out a sigh of relief. She’s clearly terrified, but he’ll take terrified over hurt or dead any day. 

“It’s okay,” he says, reaching out to pry the grille off. 

“Are the bad men gone?” she asks, reaching out her little fingers to grab onto the grille and stop him from pulling it off. 

“Yeah, the bad men are gone,” he reassures her, feeling like an absolute failure. He hadn’t protected Felicity. He hadn’t protected his children. Now Felicity has been poisoned and his children were almost kidnapped. They are going to be scarred for life. They are too young to deal with any of this, yet, here they are. 

Ella lets go of the grille and he pulls it off carefully, not wanting to make a loud noise and scare her any further. He then reaches into the vent and pulls her out and into his arms, holding her tight while she cries. 

“Oh, my sweet girl,” he whispers into her hair, rubbing soothing circles on her back, while he continues to look around for where Grace might be hiding. “I’m so proud of you. You were so brave today.” 

“I don’t wanna be brave,” she says through her tears. “I don’t like it.” 

“I don’t like it either,” he says, standing up carefully while keeping her in his arms. “Now, where is your sister?” 

“She’s in a locker,” she says. 

Oliver glances back at Wayne to make sure that Felicity is being taken care of. He watches as Wayne fills up a syringe with something and then injects Felicity with it. 

There’s a part of him that is crying out to go to Felicity’s side and push Wayne out of the way and take care of her himself. However, he knows that’s just the jealousy talking. He may not like Bruce Wayne as a man, but he’s pretty sure he can trust him as a vigilante. Despite his protests to Felicity, he does follow the news in Gotham and has a great deal of respect for the work that Batman does there. It wasn’t until he found out that Bruce Wayne was Batman that he started questioning him. 

Right now, he has two choices. He can either trust Wayne to take care of Felicity and take a minute to make sure that his daughters are okay, or he can leave the girls to their fear and go to Felicity’s side. 

Felicity would never forgive him for choosing her over the girls. Hell, he’d never forgive himself. 

“Is Mommy sleeping?” Ella asks, looking over at Felicity. 

“Yeah, she’s sleeping,” he lies. 

“She’ll be up soon?” 

“Mhmm,” he hums in agreement, hoping that part isn’t a lie at least. He gives Felicity one last glance before he turns down a hallway to make his way to the lockers they have in front of the showers. 

“Grace?” he asks as Ella points to the locker in the middle where Grace is presumably hiding. He opens the door to find her covering her ears and closing her eyes. “Sweetheart?” 

Oliver tentatively reaches out his hand to place it on her shoulder. When he does, she jumps. Her eyes fly open and she immediately begins throwing her fists, not processing who it is standing in front of her. 

“Hey,  _ hey _ ,” he says gently holding his arms up so that she will know he’s not a threat. “It’s me. It’s okay. You’re safe.” 

“The bad men are gone,” Ella tells her. 

Grace just nods her head as she catches her breath. 

“Can we go home?” Grace asks.

“Soon,” he promises. He takes Grace’s hand and her grip is so tight that her nails dig into his skin, but he doesn’t say anything. He knows that she must be terrified, and rightfully so. He leads them back into the main room.

“—She’s not getting any better!” Curtis says, sounding panicked. 

“The antidote didn’t work,” Wayne says, cursing under his breath. 

“My baby,” Donna cries, grabbing hold of Felicity’s hand. 

“Green wooden box in the far left corner! Go!” Oliver shouts, putting Ella down on the ground and moving as quick as he can until he’s at Felicity’s side, standing opposite of Donna and Wayne. He takes Felicity’s face in his hands and leans in close. “Stay with me, please. You have to stay with me.” 

“What am I looking for?” Curtis yells once he reaches the box and moves to open it. 

“Brown leather pouch! Herbs!” he says without looking up. “Come on, Felicity. Please.” 

“What’s wrong with Mom?” Grace asks. She moves to Oliver’s side and reaches out to grab her mother’s hand. Ella is on the other side of Grace, standing on her tiptoes trying to see over the table.

“She needs help, but she’s going to be okay,” Oliver says, not taking his eyes off of Felicity. He leans in close to whisper in her ear so that the girls can’t hear him. “You  _ have to be  _ okay.” 

“I love you, Mommy,” Ella says, reaching up to pat the only part of Felicity she can reach, her thigh. 

Oliver is debating asking Lance to take the girls somewhere else so that they don’t have to see Felicity like this, but the truth of the matter is that he can’t bear to have them out of his sight at the moment, so he allows them to stay. Maybe the sound of their children will remind Felicity that she can’t die tonight. That she has to come back to them. There are people depending on her that would be devastated if something happened to her. 

_ He _ would be devastated if something happened to her.

Curtis flies back to the table, pouch in hand. “What do I do?” 

“Grab some water and grind it up,” he instructs him. 

“With what?” Curtis asks.

“Move,” Wayne says, grabbing the herbs and pushing Curtis out of the way. He then smacks Oliver’s hands to get him to let go. When he does, Oliver watches in horror as Wayne pries her mouth open, shoves the herbs in, and covers her mouth and nose until she’s choking and struggling against him. 

“What the hell!” Oliver yells, shoving Wayne hard so he stumbles backwards and away from Felicity who immediately begins coughing. 

“You hurt my mommy you mean bat!” Ella yells running around the table and kicking Wayne hard in the shin. Oliver pulls her away from him, but once Lance takes her, Oliver whips back around prepared to swing.

“There was no time,” Wayne explains, refusing to back down. Oliver swings at him, but Wayne catches his fist. He swings his other hand, but Wayne catches that one, too. “You know as well as I do that she wouldn’t have lasted another minute” he says harshly, before letting Oliver go forcefully. 

Oliver knows that he’s right, but that doesn’t mean he likes it. Or him for that matter. There were other ways to get the herbs into Felicity that didn’t involve suffocating her. Least of all in front of her own children. 

“You are not welcome here,” Oliver says through gritted teeth, feeling all the rage of the night spill out of him at once. “Get out!” 

“Okay, why don’t you calm down for a minute,” Wayne says. “I did what had to be done. What you wouldn’t have been able to do; and she’s going to be fine. You know that. So stop acting like a two year old just because you weren’t the one to save the day this time.” 

“That’s not why I’m upset,” Oliver practically growls. 

“I don’t understand,” Donna says. “She’s alright?” 

“She’ll be fine,” Oliver says, his eyes never leaving Wayne’s. 

“How do you know that?” she asks. 

“She’s not trembling as much anymore,” Wayne answers. “In another minute, it’ll stop all together. Remove her clothes.”

Oliver lets out a surprised chuckle at the audacity of this guy and can’t stop himself from swinging out again, satisfied when his fist connects with his face. 

Wayne looks up at him, his face livid. He’s still wearing the mask, which makes him look all the more murderous. Oliver raises an eyebrow at him, challenging him to fight back. He’d just love an excuse to pound on this guy after the day he’s had. 

“I’m going to give you that one because you’ve had a rough day,” Wayne says with a patronizing smile. “But before you try again, you should remember who it was that rescued both your wife and your children today.” 

Reminding Oliver of how he’s failed, is in no way an effective tool to quelling his temper. 

“Ex-wife,” Curtis buts in, causing Oliver to turn his glare on him, instead. “That’s not really the point, is it? I’m just gonna…” he steps away slowly with his hands up, laughing awkwardly. “Why don’t I get some of those herbs in Anna so she can stop freaking out.” 

“That’s a good idea,” Oliver says, using his Arrow-voice. He turns back to Wayne, ready to go off on him until Ella interrupts him. 

“Daddy, Mommy’s opening her eyes.”  

If reminding him of his failures does little to quell his temper, his children certainly can in a matter of seconds. At the reminder of their presence Oliver feels all of the fight leave his body and he reminds himself that there are far more important things to deal with today than fighting with Bruce Wayne over events that happened years ago. 

Oliver moves to Felicity’s side and brushes a loose strand of hair out of her face as she slowly blinks her eyes, adjusting to the light. 

“Hey,” he says with a soft smile. “Welcome back.” 

“Oliver,” she says with a tired grin reaching out her hand to put it on his cheek. “You saved me.” 

“I didn’t,” he says, shaking his head ashamed. That had been all Wayne’s doing. Felicity doesn’t drop her hand from his cheek though, if anything she just smiles at him wider. 

“I was scared and you caught me,” she whispers, letting her hand travel down his neck and chest, her soft touch giving him goosebumps. The whole time, her eyes never leave his. “You always catch me.” 

“Hi, Mommy,” Grace says, reaching out to tug on her hand, effectively removing it from Oliver’s chest. 

“Hey, sweet girl,” Felicity says, reaching out to run her hands through Grace’s hair. “Have you been a good girl for your dad?” 

Grace nods. 

Ella tugs on Oliver’s pants and requests to be picked up so that she can see Felicity properly. He does so, relishing the comfort of having her close. Of having all three of his girls close after the day they’ve had. It’s a miracle they are all alive, and that, he can’t deny, is all thanks to Batman. 

“The bad men hurt you, too?” Ella asks, leaning close to inspect Felicity. 

“I’m okay,” Felicity says with a smile. 

Ella reaches out for a hug and Felicity moves to sit up to meet her. She’s a bit unsteady at first, but Donna helps her up and holds onto her shoulders to keep her from falling forward off of the table. When Felicity pulls back, she leans over to pull Grace into her arms as well. 

“Now, what do you mean by  _ too _ ?” Felicity asks, when she pulls back. She glances around the lair, taking note of the absolute chaos that has been left in the wake of The Final Order’s attack. She shoots Oliver a worried look. 

“The Order paid us a visit here as well,” he tells her, knowing that there is no use hiding it. 

She looks panicked and immediately begins looking the girls up and down for any sign of injury. 

“Everyone’s okay,” Oliver reassures her. “Scared, but okay, right?” he asks, looking at both of the girls.

“I didn’t like it,” Ella shakes her head. “Daddy, Grandpa Q, and Curtis hit people and used guns.” 

Felicity shoots him an alarmed look, and he can only shrug. He’s not sure what exactly she’d thought happened, but there are dead bodies on the floor and evidence of an explosion. She can’t have thought it was a simple scuffle. 

He’s about to explain more to try and settle her fears when Grace speaks up. 

“Grandma swore,” she whispers, wearing a scandalized look on her face, as if that’s been the worst crime any of them were forced to commit tonight. 

It makes Felicity laugh, and it’s music to Oliver’s ears. 

“The important thing is that everyone is okay,” Oliver says. 

“Where are Digg, Thea, and Roy?” she asks. 

“I don’t—” Oliver is about to tell her that he’s not sure, that they’d gotten caught up in their own fight against The Order when Lance interrupts him. 

“Digg texted a few minutes ago. The three of them are a little beat up but nothing serious. They are on their way to a safehouse with the Whitmore family. They are okay. Said they’d get in touch once they were settled in.” 

Everyone breathes a sigh of relief that they’ve all made it through this attack without any casualties. 

“I’m going to take Anna to meet up with her family,” Lance informs them. 

“Please be careful,” Donna tells Lance, kissing him on the cheek. 

Lance promises that he will before guiding Anna to the door. Oliver watches them leave, not turning back until the door locks into place behind them. 

“Did we jump out of a window?” Felicity asks him when he turns back to look at her. Her face scrunching up in the way it does whenever she’s trying to piece together a particularly difficult puzzle. 

Oliver looks up to Wayne, questioning him silently. Bruce approaches the table slowly, removing his mask causing Curtis, Donna, and Lance to all gasp. 

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Wayne says, his voice more gentle than Oliver’s ever heard it before and it causes him to do a double take. Wayne smiles at Felicity. 

“All the other exits were locked and I thought it best to get out of there sooner rather than later. You took it better than most,” Wayne continues, giving Felicity a wink. And Oliver hates to admit it, it’s more fond than swarmy. He’s not hitting on her, like Oliver expected. He’s actually being… sweet? Is that even possible? 

“You’re Bruce Wayne,” Curtis says, his jaw practically hitting the floor. “Wow! I mean, just… Wow. I never thought.. Not that I really thought a lot about who Batman was, but when I  _ did _ think about it? It wasn’t you. Wow.” 

“Curtis, maybe not the best time,” Donna says giving him an affectionate pat on the shoulder before turning back to Felicity. 

“So it was you?” Felicity asks Wayne. “I thought it was Oliver…” 

“I’m sorry,” Oliver says, feeling the guilt start to pull him under. She reaches out to grab his hand and squeeze it tight. She shakes her head while giving him a smile, silently telling him not to go to that dark place. 

“It’s okay,” she reassures him. “It doesn’t really matter who it was. So long as we're all here together, safe and sound.” 

“Yeah,” he says, his voice breaking as he thinks about what a miracle that very fact is. 

“Thank you for coming,” she tells Wayne. 

“Well somebody claimed they didn’t need my help,” he says with a kind laugh. “And I’ve never taken rejection well.” 

“That’s why you came? Because I told you we didn’t need you?” she asks, Oliver can see her silently building up to a feminist rant already. 

“Sure,” Wayne says with a shrug. “That and we discovered that massive amounts of Fear Toxin went missing from evidence about a month ago and were finally able to track it to Star City. I got into town early this morning. I saw what was happening at Palmer Tech on the news and knew I’d found my missing Toxin.” 

“Right. Fear Toxin,” Felicity says. She nods. Something is clicking in her head, Oliver can practically see the wheels start turning. “There was a ghost?” 

“No ghosts. Just a metahuman who can make himself invisible,” Wayne explains. “You overdosed on a very strong hallucinogen.” 

She purses her lip trying to process what’s being said.

“I don’t understand... When?” she says. “How?” 

“It was in the sprinkler system,” he explains to her, then looks back up at Oliver. “She’s covered in the toxin. She really does need to get her out of those clothes and into a shower before she inhales the stuff and the cycle starts all over again.” 

Oliver nods, realizing that he’s right. He can already see Felicity’s pupils starting to dilate

“Come on,” he reaches out for her hand, intending on taking her to the locker room to get cleaned up. Felicity takes it and stands up, leaning against him in a way that is more than just support. Her forehead falls to his chest and it’s when her breath starts to tickle his skin that he remembers he still doesn’t have a shirt on. 

“Uh, nice try,” Donna says, pulling Felicity out of his arms and giving him a pointed look. 

“I wasn’t doing anything,” he says, holding up his hands in defense.

Felicity reaches out to trace one of the scars on his chest and he can barely breathe. He has no idea what she’s doing or if it’s part of the strange combination of chemicals and herbs in her system, but she hasn’t touched him like this in years. He hates that she’s doing it right here in front of all these people because all he wants to do is savor her touch, but instead he has to appear completely unaffected. 

He clears his throat and takes a step backwards, out of her reach. 

“Mhmm. Wasn’t doing anything my ass,” Donna says looking him up and down. “Why don’t you get that taken care of while I get Felicity cleaned up.” She points to his side where his bandage has once again bled through. “I assume Mr. Wayne knows how to apply sutures?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Wayne answers. 

“Are you sure you don’t need help?” Oliver asks, wanting to follow Felicity into the locker room, despite his better judgement. 

“Please, I’m a Vegas girl,” Donna says. “I think I can handle a 110 pound girl no matter how high she is.” 

“‘m not high,” Felicity protests, but she is leaning too much on Donna to really prove her point. 

“Get stitched up, Oliver,” Donna tells him. “We’ll be done before you know it and we can take everyone back home.” 

****

**_2021_ **

_ “Oliver, how are we supposed to get over that?” Felicity asks, looking up at the barbed wire fence that’s a good 20 feet tall.  _

_ Even though she’s confident that Oliver can probably find a way over it without getting hurt — it is Oliver after all — there’s no way she can climb the fence with a broken arm and wrist.  _

_ “We’re not going over it, we’re going through it,” he says, holding up a pair of pliers.  _

_ “Where did you get that?” she asks.  _

_ “I raided the jeep’s tool bag,” he says with a shrug as he starts to work on cutting the wires so they can get through the fence.  _

_ “Keep an eye out,” he tells her. “I’ve timed it. We should have about 10 minutes before the guards come back.”  _

_ “Should?” she asks, glaring at him. She’d already hated this plan to begin with, but when he had  explained it to her back in the car it hadn’t included words like “should.” If it had, there’s no way she would have agreed.  _

_ “Relax, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you,” he tells her.  _

_ She nods, choosing not to mention the fact that if they are caught, there’s not much he’ll be able to do to protect her.  _

_ Felicity shifts her weight from one foot to another, trying to ignore the way that her feet ache and wishing Oliver would just hurry up already. She is anxious to be on the other side of the fence and on their way again. She feels like a sitting duck just standing here waiting for trouble to find them.  _

_ “She can count to 10,” Oliver says, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye as he continues working on the fence.  _

_ “What?” she asks, confused what he’s talking about or why he wants to discuss it now.  _

_ “Grace? I know you were working on it with her before… Anyway. She can count to 10 now without messing up,” he says.  _

_ Felicity feels a pang at the thought of Grace doing anything without her there to see it, but she realizes that Oliver’s trying to distract her from her worry and she appreciates it. _

_ “Yeah?” she says, tearing up a bit as she pictures Grace sitting down with Oliver, counting to 10. She can just imagine the look of pride on Oliver’s face the first time that she finally did it on her own without messing up. “She’s not skipping three and seven anymore?”  _

_ “Well, it’s twee and seben, but no, she’s got them all down,” he says. “Now she’s working on 11 through 15. She’s going to be a genius like her mother.”  _

_ Felicity smiles at that. “You know all parents think their kids are geniuses.”  _

_ “Right, but ours actually is,” he says. “After you.”  _

_ Felicity is shocked to see that Oliver has finished cutting a hole out of the fence, just large enough for them to fit through. When had that happened?  _

_ “Thank you,” she says, giving him a small smile as she realizes that his distraction technique had worked. Her worry had calmed down to a much more manageable level. _

_ They both crawl through the fence and make it to the other side without any alarms going off. She turns to Oliver once they are through and gives him a questioning look.  _

_ “The guards will be here any minute. You need to stay low and in the bushes. I’ll take them out,” he instructs her, walking her over to some low bushes before handing her a gun.  _

_ “What’s this for?” she asks, unwilling to take it.  _

_ Felicity had known this was part of the plan. It’s a precaution in case anything happens to Oliver. In theory, she’d agreed that it was a smart move. Of course she should be armed. But in practice? Seeing a gun just reminds her of everything that’s happened over the last 48 hours and it makes her want to vomit.  _

_ “It’s just in case,” he says carefully. He must see the panicked look on her face. “You shouldn’t have to use it.”  _

_ “Right,” she says, and reluctantly takes the gun out of his hands. It feels heavy in her hands. Heavier than she remembers a gun being. Maybe that’s just her imagination. The blood of 10 men on her hands weighing her down.  _

_ “We’re going to be okay,” Oliver promises her, leaning in for one last kiss. “Trust me,” he says when they pull back.  _

_ “With my life,” she whispers, forcing every other thought out of her mind that isn’t directly related to the plan at hand.  _

_ There will be time for her guilt later. Right now, she has to be in the present. Their lives might very well depend on it.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was quite a beast to write, so I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> Comments are everything <3


	16. Dream of Life Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your patience with me in waiting for this update. As any of you following me on Tumblr probably already know, this story is quite an undertaking to write - what with the 2 different storylines that have to line up perfectly in order to work, the multiple characters to keep track of, and the heavy emotions that come with Oliver and even more so with Felicity... Chapters aren't always as easy to whip out as I would like them to be. There's always the fear and anxiety that I'm going to miss something important or that the emotions won't work and that tends to keep me from updating as often as I would like. Thank you so much for your continued support, patience, and encouragement. It really does mean the world to me. Your comments keep me going on days when I just want to stop. ;)

******2021**

_ Oliver sets down the security guard’s unconscious body behind the bushes right next to the first. Felicity is already searching the first guard for anything that could be of use to them, so he starts searching the second guard. As quickly as they can, they confiscate canteens, extra weapons, ammunition, walkie talkies, sunscreen, and keys. He glances at Felicity’s bare shoulders. Despite the cool air, the sun is out and she’s already starting to burn. He takes the jacket off of the smaller soldier and helps her get her good arm through the sleeve. It’ll provide her more warmth as well as some protection from the sun.  _

_ “Thanks,” Felicity says, pulling the jacket tighter around herself.  _

_ He looks from her bare legs to the men’s pants, debating giving her those, too. However, even with a belt, he doesn’t know if they’d stay on. She’s always been small, but after 17 days of captivity, she’s tiny. Their boots would be way too large, as well. If they had to run, she’d be unable to move. They’d be like clown shoes.  _

_ “What happens when they wake up?” she asks, staring down at the men.  _

_ “I don’t plan on being here to find out,” he says.  _

_ Oliver puts a taser in one of her pockets and a gun in the other. He then pockets the keys and tucks a gun, knife, and taser into his own belt.  _

_ “We should keep the walkies on us,” Felicity says as he starts to pack up the rest of the things into the backpack. “In case we get separated.”  _

_ “We’re not getting separated,” he tells her, refusing to even entertain that thought.  _

_ “Oliver—”  _

_ “No,” he says. “It’s not happening.” _

_ “Okay.” She puts her hand on his shoulder. “But I’d feel better if we did…” she says, her voice small and scared. It’s enough to make him reconsider.  _

_ He looks up at her and she’s staring off into the distance, refusing to meet his eyes. It hits him harder than he would have thought, but she doesn’t believe that he can protect her. Of course, he’d been terrified of the same thing. He’s been beating himself up over how he hadn’t been able to save her sooner, but for Felicity to think that… It hurts.  _

_ She’s always had the utmost faith in him. Even when he didn’t deserve it, Felicity believed in him. For her to start doubting him now — it hurts. It just drives home how much he’s really failed this time.  _

_ He could continue to argue with her, to try and make her see that he’s not going to let anything hurt her ever again, but what would be the point. He can’t make a promise like that. The most he can promise is to try like hell to make sure she remains safe.  _

_ If a walkie talkie is what it takes to give her peace of mind, then it’s the very least he can do.  _

_ Oliver picks up one of the walkies and plays around with it until he finds a channel that doesn’t appear to be in use. He hands it to her before picking up the other one and placing it on the same channel, testing them both out to make sure they work.  _

_ “We should get going,” he says, standing up and putting the backpack on.  _

_ She clips her walkie talkie to her jacket, then reaches out to take his hand. _

_ “We have more water now,” she says. “Maybe we should just walk.”  _

_ Felicity tries to pull him farther away from the road, but he doesn’t let her.  _

_ “We aren’t walking,” he says. “We’re getting a car.”  _

_ He doesn’t want to keep bringing up how awful she looks, but it’s not good. She seems strong now, but he knows first hand how quickly that can change. Felicity won’t make it on foot. She has too many injuries. _

_ “And what if we get caught?” _

_ “We’ll stay low,” he reassures her. _

_ She doesn’t say anything, but the way she’s biting her lip lets him know that she doesn’t agree with his plan. _

_ “Hey,” he says. “I do this stuff every day for a living. If I thought I couldn’t do it, I wouldn't try.”  _

_ “You do a lot of risky things…”  _

_ “Not with you around, I don’t,” he says.  _

_ She takes a steadying breath and he can see when the words finally sink in, because the confidence returns to her. She pulls herself up to stand straighter and a determined look crosses her face. She nods, letting him know that she’s agreeing to the plan.  _

_ They start walking in the direction that the soldiers had come from. They keep off to the side of the road in the ditch. It doesn’t provide much cover apart from the occasional bushes, but it’s at least something. He just hopes nobody decides to drive past.  _

_ They are walking in silence for a good ten minutes before Felicity speaks up.  _

_ “Do you think my father will find us?”  _

_ Oliver feels a rush of anger at the reminder of why they are in this situation in the first place.  _

_ “Don’t call him that,” he says through gritted teeth. “He’s no father to you.”  _

_ Felicity nods. “Do you think he’ll find us, though?”  _

_ “I don’t see how,” Oliver says. “His plan was for us to go to Deir ez-Zur, was it not?”  _

_ “That’s certainly what it seemed like,” she says. “But I don’t know. I can’t help but feel like he’s still watching us somehow. Like, no matter what we do, he’s already 10 steps ahead of us.”  _

_ “It’s natural to be paranoid after what you went through,” he says. “I felt the same way when I first came home.” _

_ “Did it ever go away?” she asks. _

_ He doesn’t want to lie to her, but he also doesn’t want to tell her the truth, though he’s pretty sure she already knows.  _

_ “It got easier,” he says instead. “I never stopped looking over my shoulder, but I stopped immediately assuming everyone was a threat. Eventually, I found safe places where I could relax… It got easier. It will for you, too.”  _

_ She nods and they continue to walk in silence. He wants to say more, but he knows that she’ll speak when she’s ready. _

_ Felicity squeezes his hand and stops walking. When he turns his head back to the road, he sees why. There’s a truck in the distance parked on the side of the road.  _

_ “Do you think that’s theirs?” she asks.  _

_ Oliver certainly hopes so, because if it’s not, it means they have company.  _

_ “Stay here and get low,” he instructs her, pulling his gun out.  _

_ Oliver waits until she’s laying down on the ground with her own gun in hand before slowly approaching the vehicle. He’s careful to mind his surroundings, aware at any time that he could be caught.  _

_ Once he’s within range, he pulls the keys out of his pocket and presses the unlock button on the key fob. He breathes out a sigh of relief when the headlights flash, grateful to find they haven’t stumbled across more guards. Oliver surveys the surroundings one last time, making sure that they are alone, before he calls out for Felicity.  _

_ “We’re all clear,” he says, just loud enough for her to hear.  _

_ It takes a minute before her little head pops out from her spot in the ditch, but when it does, he can see the relief on her face.  _

_ For once, it seems like something has worked out in their favor.  _

_ “Stay there, I’ll come to you,” he says, seeing how she sways when she gets to her feet. He knows that she must be starting to feel the full effects of her injuries when she doesn’t argue with him, but instead, sits down on the side of the road.  _

_ Terrified that he’s going to lose her when he’s only just gotten her back, he runs the rest of the way to the truck and gets in, not even bothering to adjust the seat before driving to her side.  _

_ “Are you okay?” he asks, getting out of the truck and rushing to her side. He puts the back of his hand against her forehead, then chest, checking for a fever. Satisfied that she doesn’t have one, he glances down at the rest of her body, trying to determine if he’s missed something. Perhaps one of her wounds is infected… Maybe she has internal bleeding… _

_ “I’m fine,” she says, moving to stand up. He puts his hands on her shoulders to keep her down. _

_ “What’s wrong?” he asks again, leaving no room for argument.  _

_ “I just got a little light headed when I tried to stand,” she says. “It passed.”  _

_ “You’re not drinking enough water,” he says, recognizing the signs of dehydration. He’s experienced them himself often enough.  _

_ “We can’t waste it, it’s all we have,” she says, but he ignores her. He pulls the backpack off of him and takes out one of the water bottles, uncapping it and handing it to her.  _

_ “Drink it slowly,” he instructs.  _

_ She takes several sips before he feels comfortable enough to pull her to her feet.  _

_ “I’m going to get to you to a hospital soon enough,” he promises, praying that’s true. “You just need to be strong for a little bit longer.”  _

_ She nods and lets him help her into the truck. Once she’s buckled in and he’s sure that she’s not going to pass out on him, he moves to the other side of the truck to get in.  _

_ “I need you to drink that whole thing,” he says when she tries to hand him back the bottle that’s only a quarter of the way finished.  _

_ “Oliver—”  _

_ “No,” he cuts of her protest before she can start. “I know all about conserving resources, but you’re already hurt. You need to stay hydrated. We didn’t go through all of this just to lose you now.”  _

_ She looks like she wants to argue with him, but something she sees in his eyes makes her stop. He was sure he was hiding his fear for her better, but it looks like not.  _

_ “I’m going to be okay,” Felicity says, she puts the water bottle in the cup holder so that she can grab onto his hand, but he just picks the bottle back up and puts it in her hand again. _

_ “Drink,” he says, letting her know that he’s serious.  _

_ She rolls her eyes, but raises the bottle to her lips. Satisfied that she’s taken care of for now, he buckles his seatbelt and adjusts the seat farther back so that his knees aren’t hitting the dashboard. He then puts the car in drive and makes a U-turn so that they are headed north, knowing that’s the general direction they want to be going.  _

_ For now, the best thing that he can do for Felicity is get them to Al Asad Air Base so they can go home. She needs more medical attention than he alone can give her.  _

_ She takes several more sips of water before again putting the bottle in the cup holder, still half-full.  _

_ “Felicity,” he says with a warning tone.  _

_ “I’ll finish it in a minute,” she reassures him. “I just want to see if I can get the GPS working.”  _

_ He hadn’t noticed it before, but there is a small GPS resting in the console. It’s dead, but Felicity digs around in the glove box until she finds a power cord for it. She plugs it in and waits a few seconds before it lights up, letting them know it’s charging.  _

_ “It’s all in Arabic,” she says, pressing some buttons on the screen. “Can you read any of it?”  _

_ “I can’t read Arabic.” He shakes his head.  _

_ She continues to press several buttons anyways, and he’s confident that she’ll find a way to make it work despite the language barrier. It is Felicity after all.  _

_ “If I can just figure out how to get to the language option, I’m sure that English has to be a setting,” she mumbles to herself.  _

_ “If not, we can settle for Chinese or Russian,” he says. “Hell, I’d even take Spanish.”  _

_ “You know Spanish? Since when?” she asks.  _

_ “I wouldn’t say I’m fluent or anything,” he says. “But I traveled enough growing up to have picked up some things. I’d figure it out.”  _

_ “Do I even want to know what you’ve picked up,” she says with a playful glare. _

_ “Probably not,” he says with a blush, thinking back to Tommy teaching him some pretty filthy phrases to use on the women he’d meet when vacationing. There’s no doubt in his mind, if Felicity had known him back then, there’s no way in hell she’d be married to him now.  _

_ “Yes!” Felicity cheers, then immediately hisses, dropping the GPS to cradle her broken arm.  _

_ “I told you not to move it,” he says, wincing as she blinks back tears.  _

_ “I didn’t do it on purpose,” she says. “It’s a force of habit.”  _

_ She takes another few deep breaths before she picks the GPS back up. She presses a few buttons and soon a computerized voice is informing him to stay straight for 5.6 miles.  _

_ “We probably should stay off any major streets,” Felicity says to him and he agrees. He pulls off of the road and steers them into the open desert. The GPS attempts to redirect them, but Felicity places it on silent.  _

_ Felicity settles back in her seat and he hands her the water bottle again. She takes it without argument.  _

_ Now that they are taken care of and safe for the time being, he allows his mind to drift back to everything that’s happened over the last 48 hours. He can’t help but worry over Digg and whether or not he’d made it out. Or if the girls are still alright.  _

_ He’d give anything to know that they are all safe, especially now that he knows about Abraham. If only they had a phone… _

_ Oliver glances at Felicity, then at the GPS. He has only a vague understanding of how they function, and that it involves satellites… _

_ “So how do these things work?” he asks, pointing to the GPS.  _

_ “It uses satellites to triangulate your location in relation to where you want to be. It then uses maps saved onto the hard drive to determine an appropriate route,” she explains.  _

_ He nods. That part, he’d been fairly clear on. What he’s unclear of, is what kind of capabilities a GPS could have at the hands of one Felicity Queen.  _

_ “Can you use it to send out a message?” he asks hopefully.  _

_ She doesn’t answer right away, looking at the GPS for several moments before looking up at him. “I’m sure if I took it apart, I could figure out a way to rewire it to send out a message. But by the time I’d be able to do anything close to that, we’d already be at the base and could just use their computers,” she says.  _

_ He let’s out a disappointed sigh.  _

_ “What’s going on,” she says, sitting up in her seat. “You told me the girls were okay. They’re with Lyla…”  _

_ “They are,” Oliver says, hating himself for even bringing it up and making her worry. She has enough on her plate and they’re only a few hours from the base. He should have just been patient and waited.  _

_ “What’s going on, Oliver?” she asks.  _

_ “I’m just worried about everyone,” he says, hoping she takes the explanation at face value, but knowing she won’t.  _

_ “Why are you worried?” Felicity asks again, pressing him for more. She knows him well enough to be able to tell when he isn’t telling her something.  _

_ He let’s out a deep breath and resigns himself to telling her about what happened before he found her. She’s going to find out sooner or later, so he might as well just tell her now before she gives herself an anxiety attack coming up with a million different scenarios.  _

_ “I don’t know what happened to Digg,” he admits.  _

_ Her entire body goes still. “What do you mean?”  _

_ “The both of us went to Russia to look for you,” he says. “It was a setup. They wanted us to believe you were there.”  _

_ “What happened?” she asks, her eyes trained on the floor and her fingers nervously picking at a hole in her dress.  _

_ “They said they wanted me to prove that I would do anything for you,” he explains. “They brought a girl out with a bag over her head, claiming it was you.”  _

_ “Oh, Oliver—” she says, her voice shaking.  _

_ “I knew it wasn’t you,” he cuts her off. If he doesn’t get the entire story out now, he’s not sure he ever will. “It was just some kid… but they wanted me to prove that I would do anything for you. They were going to have me kill Digg to get you back.”  _

_ “Why?” she asks, clearly outraged. “What does that even accomplish?”  _

_ “They said they were trying to confirm a theory that their boss had…”  _

_ “Their boss being my dad,” she says, sucking in a breath.  _

_ “I told you not to call him that,” he says, reaching out his hand to place it on her knee.  _

_ “What happened to Digg?” she asks, her eyes squeeze shut, as if that will protect her from what happened.  _

_ “I don’t know,” he admits, ashamed that he hadn’t been able to do more for his friend. “We got caught in a shootout. When the dust settled, we were both okay but the leader had gone. Next thing I know, I woke up in the desert. I have no idea if Digg made it out or not.”  _

_ “Oh god,” she says, starting to hyperventilate.  _

_ “Hey, it’s going to be okay,” Oliver says, even though he has no way of knowing that.  _

_ She sends in an incredulous look.  _

_ “Breathe,” he tells her, moving his hand to rub soothing circles on her back. “We’ll be at the base in a few hours and we’ll call home. I’m sure that he made it back safely.”  _

_ “You can’t know that,” she says. “Oh god…  _ He _ did this…”  _

_ The look on Felicity’s face is murderous. He hasn’t seen her look this upset since the last time they’d seen Malcolm Merlyn.  _

_ “I’m going to kill him,” she says. It’s not said through gritted teeth or screamed out in rage. It’s said with such a definite, calm voice that he knows she’s being deadly serious. If she sees him again, she’ll murder him. _

_ While he shares the sentiment, the thought of his beautiful Felicity ever murdering anyone sends a chill down his spine. Killing in self-defense is one thing — and even that has left a pretty big mark on her — but killing her own father? Oliver can’t let that happen. She’ll never recover from that.  _

_ **** _

**2026**

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Donna asks as Felicity steps out of the shower and into the towel her mother is offering her. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she says with a deep sigh. 

She’s tired, the kind of tired that she can feel all the way in her bones. 

“Are you sure? You still seem a little… affected,” Donna says, leading her to the bench to sit down. Once she does so, her mom begins drying her off. 

“I’m not high anymore, if that’s what you’re asking,” she says through a yawn. “Just tired.” 

Her mom nods, accepting her answer. For now, at least. Felicity knows her mother well enough to know that there’s clearly more that she wants to say, but she’s grateful when she decides to keep it to herself for the time being. It’s already been a long day. Too long. 

“Do you have an extra pair of clothes here?” she asks. 

Felicity shakes her head. She’s never needed a change of clothes. She’s never needed to shower here, before. Her role as Overwatch doesn’t tend to get her into situations that would require her to need a change of clothes…

“Oliver has some in his locker,” Felicity says, pointing in the general direction of the lockers.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to wear your ex-husband's clothes,” Donna says. “Doesn’t Thea have anything?” 

“Thea’s clothes will never fit me. They’re too small,” she says. 

Felicity moves to stand up and sways on her feet, too tired to even stand up right. All she wants is a nice warm bed where she can sleep for the next 14 hours straight. 

“It’s fine,” Felicity says, making her way over to Oliver’s locker while holding the wall for support. When she reaches it, she pulls out a T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants with a drawstring. 

“Sweetheart,” Donna says, placing her hands on Felicity’s cheeks. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“They’re just clothes,” she reasons. She doesn’t bother mentioning to her mother that she’ll feel better once she’s wrapped up in Oliver’s old shirt. If the way her mom’s looking at her as she gets dressed is any indication, she doesn’t have to. 

“You’ve had a rough night, so it’s understandable that you’re looking for comfort,” her mom says. “But Oliver is not the person to reach out to for that. He still loves you and sending him mixed signals isn’t fair to him.” 

“Mixed signals?” she says, her brows furrowing together in confusion. 

“You were touching him pretty intimately earlier,” Donna says with a pointed look. 

Any other time, Felicity would blush and make up an excuse, but not today. After everything that has happened, between Oliver getting shot, Anna bringing a bomb to Palmer Tech, and overdosing on Fear Toxin, she’s just over it. She’s over the constant internal battle of fighting back her feelings. She doesn’t want to lie to herself anymore. 

She still loves Oliver and if the past 48 hours have taught her anything, it’s that pushing him away isn’t helping. She’s been lying to herself. She’s been convinced that if she could just get better... If she could just find the right time... They’d find their way back to each other. She’s been building up all these barriers between them like they were some irreversible truth they couldn’t deny, but the fact is  _ she _ created all those barriers. She is the only thing standing between them and she doesn’t want to anymore. 

She probably should, but she doesn’t want to. She’s exhausted and the last thing she wants to do is push away the one person she needs most. 

“I’m tired,” Felicity admits, feeling like a weight has lifted off her shoulders just from that simple confession alone. Just from admitting to somebody that maybe she isn’t as strong and put together as she likes everyone to believe. 

“I know, Sweetheart. We’ll get you into a bed soon, okay?” 

Felicity shakes her head. “No. I’m  _ tired _ . I’m tired of all of this. Tired of pushing everyone away. I thought it would be easier that way, but it’s been 5 years and I’m just so tired of it all.” 

“Oh Baby,” her mom says, pulling her into her arms. Felicity happily rests her head against her mom’s shoulder and takes comfort in the hands rubbing soothing circles into her back. 

“I thought that I’d get better,” she whispers. “I thought that I’d magically find myself again and become the girl I used to be and be able to come home to him… But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. I think this is me now… And after everything that happened, it just seems stupid to continue keeping him at arm's length.” 

Donna pulls back to look her in the eyes. “Maybe this isn’t a decision you should be making right now,” she says. 

“I’m not high anymore,” she says, but her mom clearly doesn’t believe her. 

“Besides, I was thinking this before I OD’d. Sitting there with Oliver last night, praying that he made it though, it just reminded me how stupid it is to waste time. Maybe I’ll find the girl I used to be, maybe I won’t. But all the reasons I had for keeping us apart seem stupid now. I can still go to therapy even if we are back together, and Oliver… I’m pretty sure he’ll still love me even if I never get better.” 

“Of course he will,” Donna says. Her mom is crying, and it’s not until she goes to wipe Felicity’s face that she realizes she’s crying, too. “Oliver loved you then and he still loves you now. You never had to change for him.” 

“He’s just worked so hard to find his way after the island and I didn’t want him to have to carry my burden too…” 

“You didn’t leave for him. If you had, you’d be back together already,” Donna says, not unkindly. “You left because deep down you knew that Oliver would understand, and you didn’t want that. You didn’t want to have to face what happened. It was easier to leave.”

Felicity had never seen it that way. She’d always said she left for Oliver’s own good. If she ever admitted she left for herself, it was to say that looking at Oliver just reminded her of the terrible things she’d done in the name of love. 

But maybe her mother was right. Maybe she’d run from Oliver for the same reasons she had gone 3 whole sessions of therapy without talking about her kidnapping once. Maybe the real reason she hadn’t gotten better was because she had tried repressing everything for so long. 

“I don’t know how he’s ever going to forgive me,” she whispers. 

“The same way you forgave him once upon a time,” Donna says. “Just talk to him. If anyone is going to understand what you went through and the choices you made afterwards, it’s him.” 

Felicity nods her head and steps back. Donna grabs her arm before she can walk back into the main room. When Felicity turns around, her mom grabs onto both of her hands.

“Just promise me you won’t have sex,” Donna says. 

“What? No. Why? That’s not… No,” Felicity sputters, unable to put together a coherent sentence. 

“I’m serious,” Donna says. “You’re both at a very vulnerable place right now. Until all this Order stuff gets figured out, please don’t sleep with him, no matter how tempted you may be.” 

“That’s not even an option right now,” she promises.

Donna gives her a pointed look. “I’m your mother. I know just how realistic an option that is. I just don’t want to see you two rushing back into anything until you’re 100% certain it’s what you want.”

“Okay,” Felicity says, not knowing any other way to respond when her mom is talking to her about sex. 

Donna gives her hands one more firm squeeze. “Because you’re both worth more than some one-night stand, ‘I’m glad you didn’t die,’ high on endorphins, booty call.” 

“Ugh, Mom,” Felicity groans. “You could have just stopped while you were ahead.” 

Donna laughs and lets go of her hands, wrapping her arm around Felicity’s shoulders and leading her out into the main room.

“I should call Quentin and figure out where we’re all going to sleep tonight since this place is obviously compromised. And you should go spend some time with your family.”

Felicity nods in agreement. If there’s one thing she needs right now, it’s to be with Oliver and the girls. 

****

**2021**

_ “Is that it?” Felicity asks, pointing up ahead to what looks like city lights in the distance. The sun had set about an hour ago and the only light they’ve seen for miles has been the one provided by their floodlights.  _

_ Oliver glances down at the GPS that indicates they are 2.2 miles away. He’s never been great at judging distances in the dark, but it seems about right.  _

_ “Yeah,” he says with a sigh of relief, grateful that they've finally arrived. They are almost out of gas and he’s not sure if there is an extra tank in the trunk or not. He hadn’t taken the time to take inventory when he’d first stolen the truck.  _

_ Felicity starts making little noises of shock and disbelief. When he looks over at her, she’s leaned forward in her seat trying to get a closer look and has a huge smile on her face. It’s such a drastic contradiction to the angry black and blue marks all over her face.  _

_ “We’re really going home,” Felicity says quietly, clearly not stating it for his benefit but for her own.  _

_ “Yeah,” he says, his voice filled with emotion.  _

_ His eyes begin to water when she turns her smile on him. Nothing will make up for the days he spent without her. For the nights Grace and Ella cried out for their mother. For the torture that Felicity had to endure at the hands of her father’s own men. But knowing that he’s bringing her home — It’s a feeling beyond happiness or relief. It’s indescribable. _

_ “I’m gonna see my girls again,” she says in disbelief.  _

_ He knows the feeling well. He can still remember the day he was rescued from Lian Yu by those Chinese fishermen. He can remember the long flight back to the US, feeling like he was going to wake up at any minute to discover it was all a dream. Not daring to believe any of it was real until his mother came to his hospital room and hugged him for the first time in 5 years. Sometimes, when he's laying in Felicity’s arms and everything feels right in the world, he's convinced he'd died on that island and gone to heaven.  _

_ But getting stranded in the middle of the Syrian desert does wonders to remind him that this is his life. As he looks at the bruises covering Felicity’s body, he wonders if the universe will ever be done punishing him for all of his sins.  _

_ He can't go to that dark place right now. Not while he still has to take care of Felicity and get them both home. So he picks up her hand, places a kiss on the back of it, and gives her a smile.  _

_ “They’re going to be so happy to see you,” he says.  _

_ She laces their fingers together and says, “Thank you for coming to get me.”  _

_ He shakes his head. She never has to thank him. He’ll always come for her. Always.  _

_ “I’m just sorry it took so long,” he says.  _

_ “Why would you have ever looked for me here,” she says with a shrug before turning back to look out the window at the lights that are getting closer.  _

_ He focuses back on the road and tries not to let his overwhelming rage at being bested by Abraham consume him. There will be time for revenge later. Time for Oliver to let the scumbag know exactly how far he’s willing to go to protect his wife. That had been what those men in Russia had wanted to know, right? That there isn’t anything Oliver wouldn’t do for Felicity? Well Abraham can die with the satisfaction that he was right. Promises made to not kill anymore in honor of Tommy don’t extend to psychotic parents that try to kill their own kids.  _

_ “I’m so sorry,” Felicity apologizes out of nowhere, pulling him out of his thoughts.  _

_ He gives her a confused look, having no idea what she could possibly have to feel sorry about.  _

_ “I never should have trusted him. I should have slammed the door in his face the moment he showed up on our doorstep. It was stupid to think that I could ever have a relationship with him.”  _

_ “You should be allowed to trust your own family,” he says. “No matter how bad of a person your father was, you should have been able to trust that he wouldn’t have you kidnapped.”  _

_ “He’s disappointed in me,” she says. “He hates the woman I’ve become.”  _

_ “Well that’s rich,” he says.  _

_ He watches as she sinks back into her seat, all the happiness from a few minutes ago gone.  _

_ “Let’s not think about him right now,” he says, pulling on her hand, trying to bring back the smile she’d been wearing before.  _

_ “You’re right,” she agrees, nodding her head, but the smile doesn’t return. “Today is a happy day. Today, we’re going home.”  _

_ **** _

**2026**

“We can go home?” Grace asks, looking up at Oliver hopefully. 

Wayne meets Oliver’s eyes and Oliver can see what he’s not saying aloud. Their home won’t be safe. Not until they can take down The Final Order. The lair isn’t even safe at this point. They are going to need to find a safe house. 

“Why don’t we get your old man patched up?” Wayne says, crouching down so that he’s Grace’s height. “Do you think you can help me?” 

“Me?” Grace asks, surprised. 

“Of course,” Wayne says with a smile. 

He picks Grace up and sets her down on the med bay table. He gestures for Oliver to sit down so he does. He then hands Grace a lamp and helps her adjust the grip so that she’s shining the light directly on his wound. Oliver is surprised to see how natural Wayne is around kids. He really never expected it. 

“Now hold it just like that, so I can see, okay?” Wayne instructs her. 

Grace nods. 

Ella taps Wayne carefully on the leg until he kneels down to meet her eyes as well. “Well here I was thinking you were scared of me,” Wayne says. 

“Only when you have the mask on,” Ella tells him, shyly. “Can I help Daddy, too?” 

“Of course. You can be the hand-holding nurse,” Wayne says, picking her up to put her on Oliver’s other side. “You can hold your daddy’s hand when he gets scared.” 

“He doesn’t get scared,” Ella says, but takes his hand anyway. 

“Of course not,” Wayne says to her with a kind smile before giving Oliver a knowing look. 

In that moment, he knows that Wayne understands. Every time Oliver puts on his suit, there’s a little part of him that is terrified of what he’s going to find that day. It’s never completely gone away no matter how much people like Slade and Waller tried to beat that fear out of him. He’s always been ashamed of it; thought it made him a weaker fighter. But he can see that Wayne feels it, too. 

Maybe it’s natural to still get scared. Maybe that’s what keeps them human. 

Oliver doesn’t say it, but he’s incredibly relieved when Wayne shoots him up with pain meds and numbs his side before getting to work. He hangs a blood bag and hooks him up to an IV before starting to stitch him up. Oliver can be tough, but after the day he’s had, he really doesn’t want to be anymore. 

Curtis brings the girls both juice boxes from upstairs and encourages them to drink, claiming they need some sugar in them before they crash. They both drink in silence, switching back and forth between watching Wayne work on him and smiling up at Oliver. They are clearly proud of themselves for helping. 

Any worry that his girls wouldn’t make it out alright is melted away in that moment. They may be in for some nightmares in the coming weeks, maybe even months, but they’ll be alright. They are strong. With Felicity and him as parents, he doesn’t know why he ever worried they’d turn out any other way. 

“Thank you,” Oliver says to Wayne. 

If his younger self were here, he’d be kicking him. Never in a million years did he ever think he’d have a reason to be grateful for Bruce Wayne, but today has been incredibly humbling in more ways than one. He’d almost lost everything and had to once again learn that he can’t always stop bad things from happening to the ones he loves. Realizations like that always come with some much needed reflection. 

And that reflection is telling him that it’s possible that Bruce Wayne isn’t the man that he used to be, any more than Oliver is. 

“It’s nothing,” Wayne says. “At this point, I could do sutures in my sleep.” 

“Not for the sutures,” he says. 

Wayne looks up, a bit taken back by Oliver’s words. When he sees how sincere Oliver is being, he nods. 

“Well, I know what it’s like to lose somebody that you love,” he says with a sad smile. “I’m just glad I could get to everyone in time.” 

“Me, too,” Oliver says. 

“Me, three,” Ella says. “Even if you are a scary, big bat.” 

They all laugh. 

“You’ve got cute kids,” Wayne says as he continues with his sutures. “How did that happen?”

“It was all Felicity,” Oliver says.

“He helped,” Grace says, repeating what has always been Felicity’s line whenever the topic comes up. 

The conversation between them flows surprisingly well after that, the girls acting as a nice buffer whenever things steer into uncomfortable territory. Before Oliver knows it, Wayne is bandaging him up and relieving the girls of their official duties. 

“I should probably get going,” Wayne says, standing up straight. “Keep me in the loop about The Council. I know you all are determined to handle it on your own, but they’re trouble for every single one of us.” 

“The Council?” Oliver asks, confused about what he’s talking about. 

“Ah, I see Ms. Smoak hasn’t had a chance to tell you yet,” Wayne says. “The Council are the ones responsible for all the terrorist attacks and masks going down the last several months. If they keep this up, there won’t be any of us left to protect our cities.” 

“When did you figure this out?” Oliver asks, trying to make sense of what he’s being told. 

“Yesterday morning?” he says. “I had Lucius send Felicity all of the information yesterday.” 

Yesterday... He tries to think back over the events of the last few days. Has it really only been a few days? It seems like the last day alone has lasted weeks. Yesterday, The Final Order had kidnapped those boys and Oliver had been shot. 

Yesterday, Felicity had been MIA.

Yesterday, Felicity had left the office upset, according to Anna…

He tries to figure out what it all means, but comes up short. He’ll have to talk to Felicity directly about it, once they can manage to actually have a minute of spare time.

The girls both say goodbye to Wayne and he grabs his mask and is gone in the blink of an eye. 

“Now that’s a cool suit,” Curtis says. “You should get one of those,” he says to Oliver. 

“I’m good, Curtis. Thanks,” Oliver says, glaring at him playfully. 

“Well, not that this hasn’t been fun, but I’m going to head out, too before something crazy happens again,” Curtis says. “Too much excitement for one night.”

“Don’t jinx us,” Grace tells him, rolling her eyes. 

At that moment, Felicity comes back around the corner, Donna on her heels. She looks much more alert than she had before, despite the fact that she’s clearly exhausted. She’s wearing a pair of his sweatpants that are too long in the legs and an old T-shirt of his. Which would be surprising enough without her coming up to him and giving him a hug out of nowhere.

“What’s this for?” he asks, wrapping his arms around her and enjoying the feeling of having her close. She smells less like chemicals now, which is promising. She’s used his body wash to clean off and that mixed with the sight of her in his clothes brings back memories, sending a surge of want right through him. 

“I don’t do it enough,” she says. The sincerity of the statement catches him off guard and he’s not entirely sure how to respond. 

She stays there, laying her head against his chest for a few more moments before Grace reaches out for her and she pulls back with a shy smile. Grace lets go of Felicity’s hand once she moves to sit down on the med bay table and pulls Ella into her lap. Oliver tugs Grace closer to him until she’s nestled into his side, so he doesn’t notice at first when Felicity scoots closer to him. Not until they are touching from ankle to hip. 

He holds his breath as she leans into him and rests her head on his shoulder. For a second, he doesn't know what to do. When he realizes that she’s not moving, he reaches his arm back to wrap it around her shoulder. He runs his hand through Ella’s hair to make the move seem less romantic, just in case. He doesn’t want Donna coming over to pull her away from him again. 

“That’s my cue. I’ll check in with you guys tomorrow. Get some rest,” Curtis says, giving them all one final wave before heading out. 

After the door closes behind Curtis, they all sit in silence for several minutes, Oliver looking everywhere but at Donna, knowing that she’ll see right through him and how much just the feeling of Felicity leaning against him is affecting him. 

Ella’s head falls down to Felicity’s shoulder and he knows from experience that she’ll be asleep in another minute or so. Felicity kisses her forehead and scratches her back as he continues to run his fingers through her hair. It doesn’t take long for Ella’s breathing to even out, signalling she’s down for the night. Ella has always been a heavy sleeper. Once she’s out, there’s very little that can wake her. 

He then turns to Grace, who is fighting back a yawn. He pats his thigh for her and she smiles up at him gratefully, shifting around until her head is laying in his lap.

“What if they come back when I’m sleeping?” Grace asks, the fear in her voice bringing tears to his eyes. The memory of those men walking out with his daughters will forever be seared into his memory. It was hands down one of the worst moments of his life, right up there with Felicity getting kidnapped.

“I won’t let them get you,” Oliver says, swallowing down the emotion so as not to scare Grace any more than she already has been.

“Promise?” Grace asks through a yawn, already half asleep. 

“Promise.” 

Even though Oliver knows from experience it’s a promise he can’t possibly make, he says it anyway because it’s what Grace needs to hear. In another moment, she’s asleep and Oliver wraps the arm with the IV carefully around her middle. Her sigh of content does a lot to alleviate his worries. 

“I’m going to go upstairs and see if I can’t wrangle us all something to eat,” Donna says, leaving to give them some privacy. He’s not sure how she’s gone from pulling Felicity out of his arms and thinking he might take advantage of the situation, to allowing whatever  _ this _ is to happen, but he’s not going to complain. 

“Still high I see,” he teases Felicity once Donna is out of earshot. 

“Not high,” she responds, lifting her head to kiss the top of his shoulder like she used to do when they were together. The feeling of her lips on his skin sends shivers down his spine and he closes his eyes to block out everything else. He has no idea what is happening or why. He’s terrified that he’s going to say something and the moment will be ruined. Or even worse, he’ll wake up and it will all have been a dream. 

“Then why?” he whispers, unable to stop himself from asking. He has to know. He has to know if this is just a momentary lapse so that he can shield his heart from the inevitable heartbreak. 

“Because I love you,” she says, sitting back a little to look him in the eyes. 

He’s so stunned that he almost forgets to keep breathing. 

“I love you,” she repeats, and it’s not any less surprising the second time around, but it’s just as beautiful. 

He knows that he should say something back. He should tell her that he loves her, too. But the truth is, she already knows that he does, and he’s more than a little bit terrified of admitting it aloud again. Not until he understands what this is. 

“You almost died last night. Then I almost died. And then, whatever happened here… happened,” she says, gesturing around to the complete chaos that has become of the lair. “I just didn’t want you to die not knowing.” 

“Okay,” he says, wanting to hit himself for how stupid it sounded. Here she is, spilling her heart out to him, and the best he can come up with is ‘okay.’  

“I hope that it is,” she says, biting her lower lip and looking up at him with terrified eyes. 

“Yeah, of course it is,” he says, nodding. He’s choked up and trying his best not to cry. 

Oliver wants to know more. Wants to ask her what this means. Needs to know if this is just the post-battle endorphins or if it’s for real. His heart is aching to tell her that he loves her back, but his mind is screaming at him to wait. To see if the spell breaks in the morning. 

Instead, he kisses her on the forehead and pulls her into his side. Her head falls back onto his shoulder and it feels like a part of him is sliding back into place that he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. 

It feels like home. 

Oliver prays that this is for real, because if it isn’t, it won’t matter that he didn’t say ‘I love you’ back. It’s going to break him all the same. 

****

**2021**

_ Oliver pulls up to the main entrance of the base and Felicity breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of the US flag flying on top of the building just beyond the gate. All day long, she’s had the feeling that her father was still watching them. That they were only moments away from being recaptured. It made it impossible for her to completely relax. Pulling up to this base, she’s happy to say that fear is gone.  _

_ They are finally somewhere that can protect them. After weeks of living in fear, nobody is going to be able to touch her beyond these gates.  _

_ She is going home.  _

_ Relief doesn’t even begin to describe Felicity’s feelings at the moment.  _

_ Oliver reaches out and grabs her hand, tangling their fingers together before giving her a squeeze. She looks over at him and he gives her a smile. Felicity wonders if this is how he felt when he was first rescued off Lian Yu. If his stomach filled with nervous butterflies at the same time that his heart felt like it would burst from joy. She’s never taken the time to ask him, she realizes. She’ll have to do so. After all, they’ll have a very long flight home together and plenty of time to kill. It seems like the perfect time for a long discussion.  _

_ If anyone will understand how she’s feeling, she knows it’s Oliver. _

_ A soldier approaches their car and knocks on Oliver’s window. He rolls it down. _

_ “This is a restricted area,” the soldier says. “I’m going to need to see some ID.” _

_ “We don’t have any,” Oliver says. “My name is Oliver Queen, and this is my wife Felicity. I’m the mayor of Star City and she’s the CEO of Palmer Technologies. We were both kidnapped and were hoping you could help us get back home.”  _

_ The man shines a flashlight in their faces as a look of recognition comes over him.  _

_ “You’re Oliver and Felicity Queen?” the soldier says harshly.  _

_ The tone causes Felicity to sit up in her seat in shock. She’d been so busy dreaming about home that she’d never even thought to consider the fact that the US military might not be so willing to help them. Why would she? They are both high profile US citizens who were kidnapped overseas. What is the military’s job if not to protect their own?  _

_ “Yes,” Oliver responds. His entire body tenses up as his hand goes to the gun at his belt. He doesn’t grab it, but it’s within reach if he needs it. She really prays they don’t. Killing her father’s men? Those Syrians who were about to kill her? That’s bad enough. But killing US military on a military base is something else entirely.  _

_ “As I said, we were kidnapped and are trying to get back home to Star City,” Oliver says. “You can look it up. My wife’s kidnapping was national news before I was taken, I can’t imagine that’s changed.”  _

_ “I’m going to need you both to put your hands where I can see them,” the soldier says, pulling his gun on them. _

_ Oliver’s hand wraps around the gun and is about to pull it when Felicity reaches out and grabs his wrist to stop him.  _

_ “Oliver,” she says, nodding to the front of the car where the gate has opened and several soldiers can be seen in their headlights. All of them have their weapons raised and pointed at them.  _

_ “I think there’s been a misunderstanding,” Oliver says.  _

_ “Put your hands where I can see them,” the soldier repeats, this time yelling. He jams the barrel of his rifle into Oliver’s shoulder.  _

_ She can see him take a deep breath, clearly trying to maintain his calm. She knows that he could have the soldier disarmed in a second, but it’s unclear if he could take out all of the soldiers without one of them getting hurt. Or if they’d really want to. Like Oliver said, this is clearly just a misunderstanding. They should just cooperate for now and this should all be cleared up soon enough.  _

_ Felicity raises her good hand in the air and Oliver does the same, shooting her a worried glance. She meets his eyes and tries to let him know that she’s okay. She knows all it will take is one sign that she’s not and Oliver will loose the tentative hold he has over his temper.  _

_ “It’ll be okay,” she tells him as both of their doors are opened and they are instructed to step out of the car slowly. “We haven’t done anything wrong. Just listen to what they say.”  _

_ He nods his head before stepping out of the car. Felicity does the same and is directed towards the front of the car where somebody forcibly pushes on her shoulders until her chest slams into the hood of the car. The sound of metal vibrating lets her know they’ve done the same to Oliver. Hands run up and down her body, searching her for weapons. They quickly find her gun and taser and disarm her of both.  _

_ Felicity closes her eyes and tries to remind herself that this will all be over soon. Once they are no longer deemed a threat, somebody will research their story and realize they are exactly who they say they are. She just has to keep it together long enough to see that happen. She swallows a whimper of pain as hands dig into a bruise on her side while they continue to search her. Oliver’s low grunts tell her he’s barely keeping it together as it is without her giving him any more ammunition.  _

_ “She’s clear.”  _

_ “Him, too.”  _

_ “Cuff ‘em,” the first soldier says.  _

_ Her left arm is pulled behind her back, which would be fine, but then he grabs onto her right arm to pull on it. She screams out as her vision goes black from the pain. She can’t help but start crying out as her nerves go haywire. It feels like she’s being stabbed repeatedly from her wrist all the way up into her shoulder. _

_ “Don’t touch her!” Oliver yells and she can hear the unbridled rage in his tone. Any chances they’d had of clearing this misunderstanding up in a civilized fashion is out the window.  _

_ She looks up through her tears and can just barely make out the blurry form of Oliver swinging at the men. He takes out at least three of them before they overpower him and slam him into the ground.  _

_ “Oliver!” she cries out. She’s shoved to her knees, while her hands are handcuffed behind her back. She hisses as she tries to breathe through the pain, but it’s too much. She feels like she’s about to pass out. _

_ “Can’t you see she’s hurt?!” Oliver screams.  _

_ His only response is a boot to the face. A sickening crunch has Felicity feeling like she’s about to vomit. They’d kicked him hard enough to guarantee a concussion, probably even a broken jaw.  _

_ Felicity sees red. She thrashes against the arms holding her in place, and ignores the way it only makes her body ache in more pain. When she overhears one of them order to have them thrown in containment and make sure they are separated, Felicity speaks up, “Aren’t you going to read us our rights?”  _

_ This can’t be legal. This is harassment and all it will take is one phone call to their lawyer to have this base swimming in a lawsuit and forcibly shut down.  _

_ “You don’t have any rights.”  _

_ The way it’s said causes the hair on the back of her neck to stand up. They aren’t even treating them like people at this point. These men have no intention of providing them with any of their legal rights. She has no idea what they will do to them, but she knows she sure as hell doesn’t want to be separated from Oliver for any of it.  _

_ “Let us go!” Felicity screams, terrified when she sees them dragging Oliver’s unconscious body. His nose is bleeding really badly and his eye is already starting to swell. She doesn’t stand a chance against them without Oliver.  _

_ “Keep struggling and you’ll get a bullet to the back of the head, do you hear me?” the man holding her says.  _

_ Felicity has no idea what is going on. She doesn’t know what has these men treating them so poorly or why they are being viewed as a threat, but it’s got her father written all over.  _  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are love <3


	17. Ease the Ache

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, my apologies for the long wait between updates. I moved this past month and it really has thrown me all off, especially when I went a week and a half without internet! The HORROR! 
> 
> Second, the lovely Cherchersketch drew this beautiful piece of art for the fic reflecting the events of the last chapter.
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> [](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/IMG_0478_zps4xblt98r.jpg.html)  
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> 
> As always, thanks to Emma for looking this over!

******_2021_ **

_ The first thing Oliver registers is the chill in the air. Despite his time on Lian Yu and his assertions that he doesn’t get cold, nine years stateside has gotten him used to things like central heating. He’s shivering. The next thing he’s aware of is the paper thin mattress underneath him, doing nothing for his back, which twinges from sleeping on such a hard surface. Another thing he’s out of practice doing. _

_ It’s not until he hears distorted laughter in the distance that he fully realizes something is wrong. He has no idea where he is. _

_ Oliver pries his left eye open, while his right eye remains swollen shut. He sits up and takes in his surroundings. Three concrete, white walls stand in stark contrast against a thick, red, metal door that takes up the entire width of one wall. _

_ Oliver doesn’t have to look down to see himself in an orange jumpsuit to know that he’s being held in a prison cell. _

_ For a moment, the only thought on his mind is that it has finally happened. Everything he’s done wrong in his life, all the death and destruction, has finally caught up with him. Judgment Day has arrived and none of the good he’s done in the world will ever atone for his long list of sins. _

_ The moment is short lived, however, when he remembers how he got here and that he wasn’t alone when he arrived. _

_ “Felicity,” he whispers, overwhelming terror running through his body and stopping his heart. _

_ Oliver stands up and rushes to the door, clawing at the seams trying to pry the damn thing open. _

_ “Hey!” he yells, his jaw is protesting even the smallest movements, but he has to ignore it. Felicity is in trouble and it’s entirely his fault she’s here. _

_ “Hello!” he screams, pounding on the door as hard as he can, desperate for one of the guards to come, but after several minutes, nobody has. _

_ Oliver frantically glances around the room, trying to figure out if there is any possibility for escape, but he already knows he’ll find none. Breaking out of a federal prison would be hard enough, but this is a military prison built to hold terrorists. This is the place they detain the worst of the worst. _

_ In his heart of hearts, he knows that the only way out of here will be if they let them out. _

_ Tears leak from his eyes against his will as he pictures Felicity, alone and scared, in a prison cell. Sweet, innocent Felicity, who’s never done anything but try to help people and make the world a better place. Who would never have been in this mess if he hadn’t brought her a bullet-ridden laptop and developed a crush. If he hadn’t grown attached to her and decided that she was the person to trust when he was shot by his mother all those years ago. _

_ No. _

_ Felicity can tell him that she chose this life all she wants, but at the end of the day, the only reason she’s involved is because he let her be. _

_ Oliver might deserve to be in prison for all he’s done in his life, but he’ll be damned if the mother of his children is left to rot here. She deserves better than this. _

_ “Hey!” he screams, praying to god that somebody comes to his aid, but there’s nobody. Nobody knows where they are and even if they did, he’s not sure any of his friends would be able to break him out of a military-run prison.  _

_ Of course, there is one friend with that kind of power… _

_ “I’m an ARGUS agent!” he yells. “I answer directly to Director Lyla Michaels. I demand you let me speak to her!” _

_ It’s a lie. Waller may have kept him on as a contracted member of the Suicide Squad with a “long leash”, but Lyla had made sure that any traces of his employment through ARGUS were destroyed. Still, he knows that the second the military runs his name through the ARGUS database, Lyla will know and she’ll come for him. _

_ He can hear what have to be guards in the hallway, but they don’t stop talking and joking. He yells again, but they continue their conversation as if he’s not even there. _

_ Oliver doesn’t know how long he stands there pounding on the metal door and screaming out, but it feels like hours. It takes two shift changes before a guard finally decides that Oliver can’t be ignored any longer. _

_ “What?” he hears through the door as metal scraps against metal and suddenly there’s a sliver of window revealed where Oliver can see a man on the other side. _

_ “I want to speak with Director Lyla Michaels,” he says, using his Arrow voice. _

_ “Michaels? ARGUS?” the guard says with a laugh. “Yeah. Okay.” _

_ Oliver growls and resists the urge to punch through the window. The window is too thin to fit his fist, even if the glass weren’t so thick that it would be impossible to crack. Showing any act of aggression won’t get him what he wants. _

_ “I demand to see my wife,” Oliver says. _

_ “You’re in no position to make demands,” the guard says. _

_ “I’m the Mayor of Star City and you have no right to keep me here,” Oliver says, trying a different tactic, but the man doesn’t look even the slightest bit impressed. _

_ “You’re a suspected terrorist and will be treated as such,” the guard says before the window is closed and Oliver is once again left alone. _

_ Terrorist? _

_ He’d assumed that they were being held because they’d discovered his work as the Green Arrow. But if his arrest back in 2015 told him anything, it’s that the day he’s unmasked, he’ll be brought up on charges of vigilantism and murder, but not terrorism. _

_ Oliver curses. If they are calling him a terrorist, they won’t go easy on Felicity. Whatever they have on him, they are going to take it out on her, and he can’t have that. _

_ Not for the first time in his life, Oliver wishes he’d been injected with Mirakuru. It may have driven him insane, but at least he’d have the strength to rip open this cell door and rescue Felicity. _

_ He continues pulling on the door as his nails start to bleed from the effort. As naive as it is, he’s determined not to stop until he gets out of this cell and to Felicity. _

_ He didn’t rescue her from Abraham just so that they could be thrown in jail. _

_ **** _

**2026**

“Sweet dreams,” Felicity whispers as she places a kiss to Grace’s temple and tucks her into bed. Oliver does the exact same thing to Ella, who’s sleeping next to her sister on the queen size bed. 

She’s missed these moments. Being divorced doesn’t allow for her to watch Oliver put their girls to bed like she used to. She hasn’t seen him playing with the girls at bathtime. She hasn’t heard him teasing them while he watches to make sure they brush their teeth. There’s been no storytimes. No scaring away of monsters under the bed. For the last 5 years, she’s been denied the pleasure of watching Oliver with their daughters. 

It’s nice. Oliver is a wonderful dad. For all of his fears initially that he’d end up like his own father, distant and cold, or that he’d be too damaged to really be a good parent, he’s amazing. 

She smiles to herself as Oliver places a palm to each of the girls’ hearts and begins reciting an old prayer he’d learned from Tatsu. She’d asked him once what it meant and he’d told her that it was a call for protection. 

This. This moment right here is how she knows she’s making the right decision. She’s been convincing herself that staying away for so long was for Oliver’s own good. That no matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t add any more weight to his already heavy load. But saying she was staying away for Oliver’s own good is bullshit. He’s never wanted anything out of life for himself apart from his family safe, sound, and together. 

Being here, the four of them together, it’s right. She can already feel the heaviness that has sat in her heart beginning to lift. She’s not sure if it’s the therapy, Oliver getting shot, the Order’s attack, or some magical aspect of the herbs they’d given her, but the events of her kidnapping… Everything that happened in Syria and Israel… It doesn’t feel as heavy as it used to when she’s standing here with Oliver and the girls. 

Which is why it breaks her heart when Oliver lingers just a little bit longer than usual, saying the prayer a little bit slower than he normally would. She can see the guilt all over his face. It’s eating away at him. She can't imagine how he's feeling. She'd been terrified enough just listening to him tell her about how the girls had almost been taken, she can't imagine having to watch it.

It pains her to know that as she’s finally starting to pull herself out of the depression she’s found herself in, Oliver is starting to sink back into his own. She can’t allow it to happen. 

She moves around the bed to his side and places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“They're safe now,” Felicity says, which only causes him to tense up under her hand.

“They shouldn't have been in danger in the first place,” he says, shaking his head. “None of you should have. If Wayne hadn’t shown up—”

“Oliver—” she starts to refute his claim, trying to defuse his guilt when he cuts her off.

“You guys should be alright here for the night,” he says, giving the girls a longing look like he wants nothing more than to climb into bed with them. Then he moves to the door.

“You're not sleeping here?” she asks.

Spending the night apart isn't going to make him feel any better, if anything it’s his way of punishing himself. And Felicity certainly doesn't want to spend the night anywhere but in Oliver’s arms. Now that she's finally letting go and allowing herself to have this, she doesn't know how she's stayed away this long.

“I'll be just downstairs on the sofa if you need me,” he says with a forced smile.

“You can't sleep on the sofa,” she tells him. “You were shot. You’re still recovering.”

“I'm fine,” he says, but she knows better than to believe that. She's seen how carefully he's been moving all night. He’s in pain.

“If anyone should sleep on the sofa, it's me,” she says, even though sleeping on the sofa, away from Oliver and the girls, is the last thing she wants to do.

“You're not sleeping on the sofa,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

“And neither are you,” she says pointedly. “Why don't we both stay in here?”

Oliver doesn't respond to that. Instead, he stares at her intensely, like he's trying to figure out what she's really asking him. Or maybe that's wishful thinking. Maybe what he's really doing is coming up with a long list of reasons to turn her away. He’d be well within his rights after everything she's put him through.

“Is that what you want?” Oliver finally asks, and it's hard to reason away the hope in his eyes.

It breaks her heart to know that he's wanted this from her and she's kept it from him. She's never wanted to be the one to cause him pain. He's had enough of it for several lifetimes. But the past is the past, and the most she can do now is her best to never let him wonder again about her feelings for him.

“Yeah,” she says. “I thought we could talk.”

Oliver nods. “If this is about today, you don't have to explain. I know that you were delirious and—”

Felicity cuts him off with a kiss before either of them can let their truckloads of baggage and insecurities talk them out of it.

She means for it to be a quick kiss. Just a soft touch of the lips to stop him from giving her an out that she doesn't want. However, the second their lips touch, she's hungry for more. Apart from their kiss on the rooftop five weeks ago, it's been years.

Felicity wants to savor every second of the moment. She’s missed him so much that some nights she couldn’t even sleep in her bed because it hurt too much to see the empty space next to her. She’s ached for him every second that they were apart, but that’s over now.

At least, she wants it to be over. Oliver isn’t responding though. His hands stay at his sides instead of pulling at the back of her shirt like he used to do. Always so desperate to hold her close and never let her go. Instead of opening his mouth for her, his lips remain unmoving against her own.

Her heart twists painfully in her chest. It would appear they don’t need to talk. Oliver’s lack of response is all the answer she needs. She’s too late. He’s finally figured out that he wants more from life than her.

“Sorry,” she says, looking down at the floor, trying to pull herself together. If she looks up at him now, she’ll start crying.

“Don’t apologize,” Oliver says. He places a finger under her chin and she takes a deep breath before she looks up at him. “I just need to know that this is real.”

Oliver wants this. She can see the love and desire in his eyes, but he’s holding himself back. He’s scared.

“It’s real,” Felicity says as her voice cracks with emotion.

The words are barely out of her mouth before Oliver’s lips are on hers again. This time, he’s more than responsive. He grabs her hips and pulls her into him as close as he can. Her arms immediately go to wrap around his shoulders. He wraps one arm around her waist and pulls her up onto her toes so that she isn’t leaning back so far to reach his lips.

He walks her backwards until her back hits a wall. He places his hands under her ass and she knows exactly what he wants. She wraps both of her legs around his waist and swallows a groan when she feels how hard he already is.

“God, I’ve missed you so much,” she whispers, careful not to wake the girls. “You have no idea.”

“I have some idea,” he says. His lips move to her neck and it takes him no time to find that spot that always makes her go crazy. 5 years later and he still knows how to make her tremble. “I have wanted you every second of every day since you left.”

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I just… I didn’t know how to do this after everything. I’m still not sure I do. But I want this. I don’t want to fight it anymore. I— Oh my god,” she moans as his hips thrust into her and she can feel him right where she wants him the most.

“We can talk later,” Oliver says. “Right now, I have 5 years worth of fantasies to play out.”

“Yes,” she moans, before she opens her eyes and remembers where they are. “Wait… no,” she says, pushing against his chest.

“What?” he asks, pulling his face away from where it was buried in her neck to look at her. His eyes are practically black and he’s panting heavily. He’s too far gone.

“I told my mom that we wouldn’t do anything until after we dealt with the Final Order,” she says, bracing herself before she lowers her legs to the floor. His hands don’t leave her ass, though.

“It would hardly be the first time you’ve ignored your mom’s advice,” he says with a smirk, leaning in to kiss her again.

She lets him. She opens her mouth to allow his tongue access. Felicity had thought about Oliver’s kisses often. She’d thought about them so much, that she’d started to think that they couldn’t possibly be as good as she’d remembered them. That she’d begun building up the effect he had over her, because nobody was possibly that talented.

She’d been wrong. If anything, she hadn’t remembered nearly enough. Oliver can make her soaking wet with a single kiss. His lips are enough to make her forget her own name. 

“Felicity,” he pulls back to whisper into her ear. “I need you.”

“Yes,” she says, pushing up his shirt, feeling his still rock hard abs as she goes. “Yes,” she continues to repeat as one of Oliver’s hands find their way under her shirt and up to her breast.

“I have to tell you, seeing you in my clothes is every bit the turn on it used to be,” Oliver says.

She’s about to respond when there’s a shifting behind them. They both freeze and look over at the bed, breathing a sigh of relief when they realize both girls are still sleeping. They drop their hands to their side and adjust their clothes so they are laying straight again. Few things will ever be as sobering as the possibility of their children catching them in a very compromising position.

“Poor Grace,” Oliver says, moving to gently pull Ella back to her own side of the bed before she can push Grace off completely. He then adjusts Grace so that she’s not hanging half-off the side. “We probably should have found a place with 2 twin beds.”

“It’s not like there’s a plethora of options when it comes to safe houses. Grace’ll be fine. It’s for one night,” she says.

“Let’s hope.” 

_ **** _

**_2021_ **

_ Felicity is shivering as she tucks her knees to her chest and pulls her tattered dress over her legs. The guards have thrown an orange jumpsuit into her cell, but she’s refused to change into it with male guards watching her every move. Thankfully, threats of them forcibly changing her have been dismissed thanks to one of the men having a conscience — Corporal Johnson. He’s the only guard of hers that she hasn’t come up with a mean nickname for. He’s the only one of them that’s human.  _

_ “I want to see my husband,” Felicity says for the millionth time, but the request is, once again, denied.  _

_ She doesn’t know where they are holding Oliver or if he’s alright. The last she saw of him, he was unconscious with what looked like a possible broken jaw. She’s terrified for him. When he wakes up and finds out they are holding her prisoner, he’s going to tear this place apart trying to save her. And as much as she trusts Oliver to get them out of just about anything, she’s scared that attempting to do so at a place like this is going to get him killed.  _

_ “Are you at least going to tell me what we’re being held for?” she asks, even though it’s a losing battle trying to get any information out of these men.  _

_ “Someone will be with you shortly,” the guard to her left says condescendingly with a look that tells her there’s no chance in hell anyone is on their way. She’s nicknamed this guard Corporal Cutthroat, because he’s been the most cruel of the group so far.  _

_ “You said that hours ago,” she mutters to herself, but it just causes Sergeant Jackass to slam his hands down on her metal cage and tell her to shut up.  _

_ It takes everything in her not to react. Not to jump in shock or tremble in fear. She knows that showing weakness in a place like this is suicide. They have been glaring at her since she was brought in. They would love an excuse to try and break her. She can’t give it to them.  _

_ If Oliver can survive Nanda Parbat, she can survive this. After all, this is a US military base. Even their worst can’t hold a finger to whatever Ra’s al Ghul threw at Oliver.  _

_ That’s what she tells herself.  _

_ She can survive this. _

_ She will stay strong.  _

_ One of the guards, Sergeant Half-Wit — who’s about 250 pounds of pure muscle but looks like he can barely tie his shoes without somebody telling him how — keeps complaining about having to work overtime to guard ‘the bitch.’ _

_ That’s what they call her. They have yet to use her name, or even a number. She’s just the bitch here.  _

_ If she ever gets out of here, this base has one massive lawsuit coming their way. And if they think Felicity is a bitch, they should really meet her lawyer. _

_ “You have to let me see Oliver,” she says. It’s pointless, but she has to keep trying.  _

_ “I don’t have to do anything, you little felon,” Jackass says.  _

_ “So much for innocent until proven guilty,” she says with a roll of her eyes.  _

_ This time, Cutthroat throws open her cell door and yanks her up off her thin mattress by her broken arm. Felicity screams out as her vision blurs and her nerves go haywire, but she’s ignored. Cutthroat and Jackass drag her out of her cell and she does her best to protest. She can’t get her feet under her to gain any leverage and she can barely do anything as she nearly vomits from the overwhelming pain.  _

_ They bring her to a barren room with just a single chair in the center of it. She’s pushed and falls into the chair. Jackass tugs on her wrists and handcuffs them to the arms of the chair while Cutthroat shackles her feet to the floor.  _

_ “You have everyone fooled by this innocent, bubbly, CEO bullshit, but not me,” Cutthroat says into her ear, making her wince in fear of what he’s going to do to her. “My sister died in that explosion.”  _

_ “What explosion?” she asks, but her question is ignored. _

_ A blindfold is placed over her eyes. Headphones are placed over her ears that blast white noise at an ear piercing level. When a burst of freezing air hits her, she realizes what they are doing. She wishes she didn’t watch so many documentaries on Netflix, because then she wouldn’t have such a vivid visual of the torture they are going to make her endure until they realize she’s not guilty of whatever it is they are accusing her of. _

_ Prolonged sensory deprivation can cause extreme anxiety, bizarre thoughts, depression, and hallucinations. She read books on interrogations techniques when she’d been doing research for the team, trying to determine the safest and most humane way to get information out of Simon Lacroix. Sensory deprivation? Not humane. At least, not according to the UN.  _

_ It won’t be long before she begins losing sense of time. Whenever they do decide to finally come and get her — and there have been reports of people being put in sensory deprivation for up to 72 hours — she’ll be more susceptible to suggestion. Who knows what they may get her to confess to…  _

_ She could confess to actually committing whatever atrocity it is they think she’s done. She could admit to murdering her father’s men.  _

_ Oh god.  _

_ She could tell them that Oliver is the Green Arrow.  _

_ She starts to struggle against her bindings, but the handcuffs are so tight she’d be surprised if they weren’t cutting off her circulation. _

_ “You can’t leave me in here!” she screams out.  _

_ Her heart is pounding and she feels like her throat is closing up. She can’t breathe. They can’t do this to her. They shut down Guantanamo Bay for a reason. There are laws in place to prevent things like this from happening.  _

_ At least, that’s what the news has led her to believe.  _

_ Felicity knows that the hallucinations are going to happen. However, knowing it’s coming and experiencing it first hand, are two different things entirely.  _

_ She doesn’t know how long she’s been chained to the chair, but at some point, she begins to hear Grace’s sweet giggle as Oliver calls out, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!”  _

_ It sounds so real that it’s difficult to believe it’s not.  _

_ “Oliver?” she calls out.  _

_ “Gotcha!” Oliver yells and Grace explodes with laughter. It’s her big belly laugh that is contagious. Felicity has missed it so much that she starts to cry from happiness.  _

_ Thank god she’s home. Her nightmare is over. She’s not sure how Oliver did it, but somehow he brought them both home like he promised he would.  _

_ “Oliver?”  _

_ She turns her head to look for him, but who she finds is Slade Wilson with a sword to her neck.  _

_ “What do you want?” she asks. Slade should be grateful that her hands are bound, because if they weren’t, she’d be strangling him right now. He’s Mirakuru free now and Felicity has no problem killing the man that nearly took both Oliver and Grace from her.  _

_ “You’re the reason he didn’t kill me the first time,” Slade says into her ear as he runs a finger across her neck, right where the blade is touching it. “You’re the reason that I was alive to come back and hurt him. Hurt you. Do you remember thinking that you were going to loose your precious Grace as you bled out on the cement floor while your dear Oliver lay dying all the way across town, unable to help you save your baby?” _

_ “Except you didn’t kill Oliver or Grace, did you?” Felicity snaps back.  _

_ “I stabbed Oliver though the heart,” he says, his voice full of anger. “You almost lose both of them in a single day, all because you’d told him to find another way. He didn’t kill me because he was worried about what you would think of him. Doesn’t that eat you up inside?”  _

_ “No,” she says, refusing to let him get to her. _

_ “Tell me, has Oliver told you that he blames you for that?" _

_ “You’re lying,” she says, shaking her head, refusing to believe a single word coming out of his mouth.  _

_ “Loving you made him weak,” Slade says.  _

_ “You’re an asshole and Shado never would have loved you,” she says, and Slade growls in anger before pulling back his sword. She screams as he moves to decapitate her, but he disappears before the sword can touch her neck.  _

_ She gasps in shock as she realizes he wasn’t real. It was just a hallucination.  _

_ Keep it together, she tells herself.   _

_ The door opens and her father walks in with a smug smile on his face.  _

_ “YOU!” she screams. “You did this! I’ll kill you!”  _

_ She pulls at her handcuffs as hard as she can, uncaring that she’s only making her broken wrist worse.  _

_ “This is all your fault, you know,” her father says as circles around her.   _

_ She tries to tell herself that this can’t be real, it’s just another hallucination, but she can feel his breath on her ear. She bites the inside of her cheek, hoping that the pain will remind her of what’s real and what’s not.  _

_ “Oliver wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” he says, and it wouldn’t hurt so much if it wasn’t true.  _

_ Felicity shudders to think of what’s happening to Oliver right now. She highly doubts they have given him any kind of medical care, considering they way they keep pulling on her arm despite the obvious fact that it’s badly broken. _

_ “He can’t still love you after all of this,” her father says. “He’s going to leave you now, just like I left you.”  _

_ “You don’t know Oliver,” she says, glaring at him.  _

_ “No, but I know you,” he says. “The girl nobody loved.”  _

_ “Stop it,” she says. It’s her every nightmare coming true and it hurts a thousand times worse than her broken bones. “Stop.”  _

_ “I left as soon as I could get away,” he says. “Your mother had to keep you, but rest assured she worked night shifts for a reason. The less time she had to spend with you the better.”  _

_ “You don’t get to talk about my mother,” Felicity says, but she’s already started to cry. _

_ What if what he’s saying is true? She’d certainly felt unlovable for a long time after her father left them. Oliver had helped her to see that wasn’t true. But what if her father is right? What if Oliver can’t love her after this? Could she really blame him if he wanted to leave too? _

_ “With two parents who couldn’t stand the sight of you, it’s no wonder you’re such a terrible mother,” he says.  _

_ Her breath catches in her throat and she can hear Grace in the background talking about a new mommy. A better mommy.  _

_ “I’m a better parent than you,” she argues, trying to push the negative thoughts out of her mind, but now that they’ve been planted, it’s difficult not to let them grow.  _

_ “There it is,” her father says with a smirk. “You know I’m right. First you let me into your life, even though your mother warned you about me. Then you can’t even fight off your attackers. Didn’t Digg teach you anything? How could you let yourself get kidnapped? You knew that Oliver would come after you. You signed his death certificate. They are going to torture him until he confesses all of his sins. Then they’re going to burn him at the stake for everything he’s done.” _

_ “Stop it!” she yells, pulling on her constraints, desperate to break free but she’s not strong enough to break through metal. _

_ “You know that’s what’s going to happen,” he says with a laugh. “He’s going to confess. He’ll do it to save you. Poor helpless Felicity. What a joke you are. You might be able to hack your way into anything, but when it really comes down to it, what good are you really to the team? You’re no Laurel Lance. Gorgeous Laurel. She’s who Oliver should have married. You should have been the one to die.” _

_ “Stop it!” she screams again. She knows that her father isn’t really here. He wouldn’t know about Laurel, so this is just her subconscious talking. It’s not him. _

_ Now isn’t the time for her to succumb to her insecurities. She has to get out of here and she can’t do that if she’s drowning in a sea of self-doubt.  _

_ She tries to push her father out of her mind and it works. Soon, she no longer feels his breath on her ear. _

_ She lets out a sigh of relief. For a long time, there’s nothing but white noise and darkness. She tells herself that it’s a good thing. No hallucinations means she’s got a clear head. A clear head means that she won’t spill all of her secrets when they interrogate her.  _

_ When a door opens behind her and she hears heels against concrete, she’s relieved. Not only have they decided to end her isolation, but they’ve sent another female.  _

_ “Please tell me that you brought the jumpsuit with you,” Felicity says. “Orange isn’t usually my favorite color, but I don’t care about fashion right now. I think my legs are going to fall off if I don’t put some clothes on. This dress was cute and all, but it’s torn to shreds and it barely covered me when it wasn’t littered with holes.”  _

_ “I always knew you’d be my son’s downfall,” the woman says, and the voice is familiar. It’s Moira.  _

_ Felicity looks up to find Oliver’s mother in front of her, arms crossed, and wearing the same condescending, threatening look she remembers from all those years ago when she confronted Moira about Thea’s parentage.  _

_ How is it possible she’s still alive? Oliver saw her die. The funeral was an open casket. Felicity saw the body.  _

_ Then again, she’s seen a lot of things in her lifetime. Men that can run faster than most fighter jets, men that can kill with a single touch of the hand, super soldiers, and a pit that can bring people back from the dead.  _

_ The Lazarus Pit. Clearly Moira was brought back from the dead with it before Nyssa was able to destroy it. But if that were the case, why hasn’t she come back sooner? As much as Felicity may have despised Moira Queen, she can’t deny that she loved her children. Wouldn’t she have paid Oliver and Thea a visit by now?  _

_ Moira stares at her waiting for a response.  _

_ “What?” she asks, unsure what she’s supposed to be saying. She’d missed whatever Moira had said due to the extreme shock of seeing the woman alive.  _

_ “I said, I always knew you’d be my son’s downfall,” Moira says. “At the time, I thought it meant he’d end up marrying you in some Vegas church and you’d convince him to donate all of his money to charity and live in some run down studio apartment in the Glades. I never thought you’d get him arrested and tortured.” _

_ “I never meant for him to get hurt,” Felicity says, shaking her head.  _

_ “Well it’s too late for that now, isn’t it?” Moira says, and Felicity feels tears begin to fall. Moira has always been able to bring out the worst of her insecurities. “My son is never going to see his beautiful daughters again. They are his entire world. They are the reason he no longer punishes himself on a daily basis, and you’ve taken that from him. You’ve taken him from them. What kind of mother does that?” _

_ “Please, I didn’t mean to,” she says. She’s shaking, but she’s not sure if it’s from the cold or Moria’s harsh words. _

_ “Intentions mean nothing,” Moira says bitterly. “Who’s going to tell Thea that her brother is dead?” _

_ “He’s not dead,” she says. “Not yet. I can still save him.” _

_ “How?” Moria laughs. “You couldn’t even save yourself. Oliver had to do it for you.” _

_ “Oliver is not going to die here,” she says, determination in her voice.  _

_ The headphones are yanked off of her head and the blindfold is pushed up. In front of her is Cutthroat, glaring at her. She glances around for Moira, trying to figure out where the woman went. Felicity has to make sure that she understands that Felicity would never do anything to hurt Oliver and that she’s going to get them out of this one way or another. But Moira is gone.  _

_ “If I have my way, you and your husband will both die here and I’ll be the one to kill you,” he says. _

_ Felicity barely hears him as she tries to process her surroundings.  _

_ Sensory deprivation is a very strange experience to come out of. She has no idea what day it is or how long she’s been sitting chained to that chair. The stiffness in her muscles when she’s pulled to her feet tells her it had to be a long time. _

_ “You’re a piece of shit and I can’t wait to break you,” Cutthroat says as he pushes her towards the door.  _

_ Felicity doesn’t respond. She doesn’t want to provoke him anymore than her mere presence already does. She doesn’t want to find out what other kind of torture he’s open to. _

_ “Come on. He’s ready to see you now,” he says.  _

_ She wants to ask who is ready to see her, but she doesn’t. Not with the way he’s holding onto her arm so tightly that it’s starting to tingle as she loses circulation. Whatever awful thing they are blaming her for, it killed Cutthroat’s sister. She has seen the rage on his face before — on Oliver after that man in the desert had a gun to her head.  _

_ Cutthroat has every intention of making good on his promise to cause her pain.  _

_ She’s brought into a room with three men sitting at a table. They are clearly her interrogators. Each one looks more menacing than the last and she’s not sure she’s ever been more terrified. Facing down Slade Wilson seemed less intimidating than these men glaring at her like they have already decided she’s guilty before even asking her a single question.  _

_ She is about to take a seat at the only empty chair in the room, when Cutthroat pulls her to the ground and chains her to the floor, wrists and ankles bound together uncomfortably.  _

_ “Good luck,” he says smugly before leaving the room. The sound of the door shutting echoes throughout the room reminding her how trapped she is here. _

_ “Let’s cut right to the chase,” one of the men says. “Who are you working with?”  _

_ “I work at Palmer Technologies. I’m the CEO. Who are you?” she asks, knowing that technically she has a right to know who her interrogators are, though she’s sure that her rights mean nothing to these people, just as they had meant little to Cutthroat, Jackass, and Half-Wit.  _

_ “I’m the one asking the questions, and your sass won’t get you anywhere in here,” he says while the other two remain silent. “Tell us who you are working with.”  _

_ “I don’t know what you want,” she says.  _

_ Felicity gasps when one of the silent men move forward to smack her across her face.  _

_ “We know you weren’t working alone,” her interrogator says. “Tell us what we want to know and we can start negotiating a deal.” _

_ She licks her lip and can taste blood. She takes a shaky breath and tries to remain as calm as possible. Nothing bad ever lasts forever. Isn’t that what her mother used to tell her when she was little?  _

_ “Negotiating a deal for what?” she asks. She’d love to give them whatever information they want so that she can start bargaining for Oliver and her freedom, but she has no idea what they expect her to tell them. She doesn’t know anything.  _

_ “A deal for you to be brought back to the states and not extradited to Germany,” he says. “They’re calling for your head there.”  _

_ “Germany?” She looks at each of the men, trying to figure out what they are talking about.  _

_ She’s never been to Germany. Oliver offered to take her when they were debating second honeymoon locations a few years back, but quite frankly, she’d never had any interest. Instead they’d spent 3 weeks traveling South America. _

_ “What’s the matter? You’ve already forgotten about the 82 people you killed and the additional 97 in the hospital?”  _

_ “What?” Felicity’s jaw drops at the accusation. She has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. “I didn’t kill anybody!”  _

_ Well, anybody in Germany, she thinks. But somehow, she doesn’t think that little detail will win her any trust with these men, so she keeps the murder of her kidnappers to herself.  _

_ “So you and your husband didn’t place a bomb in Reichstag building and then release a toxic gas on the Platz der Republik?” he asks sarcastically as he slams a folder down in front of her. “Because we have your husband’s fingerprints on the bomb and your cellphone at the scene being used as the detonator for the gas.”  _

_ “That’s impossible,” she says, picking up the folder with shaky hands. “I’ve never even been to Germany.”  _

_ Felicity opens the folder and the first picture that she sees is of an impressive looking building that looks at least a hundred years old. A large chunk of it is charred and crumbling, clearly where a bomb went off inside. In the picture, a dark cloud of smoke is still rising from it as fire fighters attempt to put out a fire.  _

_ “Where is this?” she asks, her finger running over the picture as she imagines all of the people who must have been inside when the explosion went off. Innocent victims, just going about their day. It’s horrific.  _

_ “The Reichstag building. It’s in Berlin,” he says. “But you already knew that, considering you were there.” _

_ “Reichstag…” she says, and it takes her a minute to figure out why the name sounds so familiar, but once she does, she has a fairly good idea of who is responsible for the attack and it puts a pit in her stomach.  _

_ The Reichstag building would be familiar to anyone who knows their WWII history. In 1933 the German Parliament building burned down and the government, without any proof, blamed communism. They claimed it was an attempt to overthrow the state and with that fear, Hitler began his reign of terror.  _

_ Felicity doesn’t know a lot about her father, but she does know one thing. He hates Germany with a firey passion. There is no doubt in her mind that he did this and then planned for Oliver and her to take the fall for it.  _

_ The bomb was his doing.  _

_ She flips to the next photo and gasps in shock at the bodies lining the sidewalk. They are barely recognizable with the way their skin has been burned. She can’t believe it. She always knew her father was a bit of an extremist, but to kill 82 people and injure 97 more… It’s unfathomable.  _

_ Disgusted, she quickly turns to the next photo, and it’s more bodies lined up on grass, this time their bodies haven’t been charred. They look like they could be sleeping, if it weren’t for the unzipped body bags they’ve been laid in. Several of the victims are children, and there’s even an infant that looks too much like Ella not to make her sick.  _

_ Felicity leans over and promptly vomits on the floor, causing all of the men to grumble. Her stomach continues to churn, a mixture of overwhelming guilt that her own father is responsible for something so horrific and what she’s sure is lack of food. She still doesn’t know how long they held her in that room while they deprived her of her senses, but she’s sure it was at least a day.  _

_ Two men come into the room. One immediately begins cleaning up the mess she made, while the other checks her vitals. _

_ “She needs to be fed,” the man, who Felicity isn’t convinced is actually a doctor, tells her interrogator. The mere mention of food causes her stomach to tighten painfully, reminding her just how hungry she is. _

_ “She’ll be fed once we’re done,” her interrogator says dismissively. The doctor doesn’t leave, and Felicity really hopes it’s because he’s going to plead her case and make sure that she gets the food and water she desperately needs.  _

_ “If she’s not going to die in the next 5 minutes, then the interrogation will continue,” the man tells the doctor, harshly. “Are you telling me she’s about to die?”  _

_ “Well, no,” the doctor says.  _

_ “Perfect. Then you can leave,” he says, and the two silent cronies show the doctor to the door.  _

_ “Tell us who you were working with and this can all be over,” he says to her. Reaching down to grab her ponytail, he yanks her head back so that her eyes are no longer on the picture of the victims but meeting his cold, dead ones. “You heard the doctor. No food until you give us the information we’re looking for.”  _

_ “I don’t know what you want from me,” Felicity says, wincing as the grip on her hair tightens. “I would never be part of something like this.”  _

_ “Really?” the man says, letting go of her hair so forcibly that her neck cracks. “Then tell us what we’re looking at here, because on our end, all evidence points to you.”  _

_ He holds up a clear plastic bag that holds a broken phone that is, without a doubt, hers. She can tell because she’d had her phone case custom made from one of Grace’s drawings.  _

_ “We found this at the scene,” he says. “Tell us how it got there if you didn’t do this.”  _

_ “It was clearly taken from me when I was kidnapped,” she says, tears of frustration in her eyes.  _

_ “Stop lying!” he yells, and a boot connects with her ribs painfully, knocking the wind out of her.  _

_ “I told you!” she yells back. No matter what she says, it falls on deaf ears. “I was kidnapped by my father several weeks ago. I haven’t seen my cell phone since that day. I didn’t do this.”  _

_ “Then tell us who did,” he says.  _

_ Felicity pauses. As much as she wants to be free, and as awful of a man as her father is, is she really so cold-hearted that she would give him up and subject him to a place like this?  _

_ Perhaps, if Abraham hadn’t abandoned her when she was little. If he hadn’t called immigration on her mother. If he hadn’t kidnapped her and then framed her for a terrorist attack that killed close to 100 people, she’d reconsider her next words. But Oliver is right. Abraham isn’t her father and it’s time she stopped thinking he is.  _

_ “Abraham Sokolski.”  _

_ **** _

**2026**

Felicity lays with her head in Oliver’s lap while he runs his hand through her hair like she’s always loved. She has her eyes closed and her face nuzzled up against his stomach, but he knows she’s still awake because every once in awhile, she’ll make a comment or ask him a question. 

He takes a deep breath and savors the smell of his body wash on her skin. Takes in the sight of her in his old T-shirt and sweatpants… He has to take another deep breath just to stop himself from getting turned on. They really should talk about what’s going on with them before they do anything. Or at least wait until they aren’t sharing a room with their daughters. 

Oliver is honestly on cloud nine right now. Ever since Felicity kissed him out of the blue earlier, he’s felt a lightness that hasn’t been there in a long time. It’s like a piece of himself has returned. Felicity has finally come back to him, just like he’d always hoped she would. He’d just never been positive she ever would. He knew what it was like to be so overwhelmed with the past that you can’t see the future. To think that there’s no way you could ever be worthy of another’s love.

He’s glad that she is starting to heal. Nobody should ever have to live like that. 

Unfortunately, thinking about what Felicity has gone through, only brings up his own nightmares. In particular, the events of the last 24 hours.

Today has been the most awful day of his entire life. He’s endured some pretty horrible things in his time, but this day has topped them all. Was it really less than 12 hours ago that he woke up with a gunshot wound to find out that Felicity was in danger and he was unable to help because he had to protect his daughters? The memory of his little girls being held at gunpoint, as well as them being taken away from him will stay with him for the rest of his life.

Nothing is going to make up for the guilt he has over letting Grace and Ella be put in that situation in the first place. They shouldn’t have been there. They  _ wouldn’t _ have been there if he’d been able to take out The Final Order before today. But instead, he’d allowed himself to get distracted and got himself shot, leaving his family completely unguarded. It was such a rookie mistake. He knew better.

“You’re thinking too loud again,” Felicity says. She lifts her head up and reaches to smooth out the worry lines on his forehead. “This is supposed to be our happy place.” 

“Sorry,” he apologizes. 

“Whatever it is, will be there in the morning,” she tells him, laying her head back down. 

Oliver does his best to push his worries of his mind and allow himself these few hours of reprieve with Felicity. Her coming to him feels like the universe’s way of apologizing for the amount of shit they’ve been piling on top of him recently. And while he wouldn’t say getting Felicity back was worth the horrors the girls had to go through, it’s certainly an solid attempt. A very lovely, wonderful, happily accepted, attempt. 

“This reminds me of Ivy Town,” Felicity says, and he looks down to see a soft smile on her lips. Oliver can’t help but smile a bit himself at the memory of the two of them in their backyard at night for hours in this exact position. 

Their lives had been so simple then. He’d been so convinced that he’d found his happy ending. He’d hung up his hood and turned his city over to the others. He honestly thinks that if Laurel and Thea had never come to ask him for his help, he would have stayed in Ivy Town for the rest of his life, happy and oblivious to all of the mess that is life in Star City. 

But then, he looks at all of the men he’s taken down over the years, all of the attacks he’s stopped before they could destroy the city. Beyond that, he thinks of all the positive things he’s done as mayor. Schools have improved, unemployment has gone down, and with it petty crime. He knows that they made the right decision in coming back home, even if it tore their marriage apart. Neither of them would have been able to live with themselves if their happily ever after came at the cost of losing Star City. 

“You loved looking at the stars at night,” he says. 

“I’ve always lived in a big city,” she says, tracing patterns on his stomach. Her touch is featherlight, but he’s hyperaware of her every movement. “I’d never saw stars like that before.” 

Oliver hums in agreement. There was something serene about living away from the city, even if Felicity later admitted that she’d been bored to tears. Oliver had thrived in it. The calmness was more than welcome. 

“I never did build you that fire pit you wanted,” he says. 

“We didn’t have time.” 

“There’s never enough time,” he complains. 

Felicity catches one of his wrists in her hand and pulls it to her lips, leaving a kiss at his palm. She then sits up to look him in the eyes. 

“I want to change that,” she says.

She’s serious. This isn’t a trick. She’s not delirious from the herbs or high off of the adrenaline. She’s completely sober and 100% serious. 

His heart swells with emotion and there’s a lump in his throat making it difficult to talk without crying. She must see that he’s starting to tear up, because her face softens and she smiles softly at him in that way she does when she knows that he’s having a moment. 

She reaches out and takes his hands, giving them a squeeze to let him know that she understands and will wait until he’s ready to talk. 

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” he finally says. 

Felicity leans in and gives him a sweet kiss on the lips, but pulls away before either of them can start thinking about anything more. 

“I love you,” he says, finally feeling safe enough to say it without fear of his heart getting shattered into a million pieces. 

“I love you, too,” she says. “So much.” 

Oliver smiles at her and pulls on her hands until she is shifting around and curling up in his lap. Once she’s settled, he lays his head on her chest and sighs in content when she kisses the top of his head and begins lightly scratching the back of his neck. 

“I told you that when we kissed again, it wouldn’t be a moment of weakness…” he says, thinking back to that day in her office. 

“I know. I meant it as a promise, too,” she says, letting him know that she remember that moment as well. “I’ve got a lot to make up for, and I know one kiss between us won’t do so. But Oliver… I really want to try to be the woman you fell in love with.” 

“You don’t have to try and be anything but yourself,” he tells her, squeezing her tight. “It’s enough for me that you’re here with me. I don’t need you to be perfect. I just need you here.” 

“I will be, I promise,” she says. “I don’t plan on going anywhere. Not without you.” 

_ **** _

**_2021_ **

_ “How do you know this Abraham Sokolski?” her interrogator asks her the next morning. Or is it night? Felicity has lost all sense of time and place in this prison.  _

_ Can she even call it a prison? Prisons are at least humane. There is a code of conduct. Regular meals. Guards who may not like you, but they don’t beat you. This isn’t a prison. It’s hell.  _

_ “I asked you a question!” he yells, getting to close to her face she can smell the garlic on his breath from whatever he’d eaten last. “How do you know Abraham Sokolski?”  _

_ Yes, Felicity thinks. How does she know him? Because she can’t exactly come right out and say he’s her father without also incriminating herself. She’d have to admit that she is Klara Sokolski and explain why there’s no record of her in the system. Somehow, she doesn’t think that the US military will take too kindly to finding out she hacked the State Department to erase her identity at 14.  _

_ All that will do is raise questions about what else she is capable of if she’s been able to hack government databases since she was a teenager.  _

_ “He’s the man that kidnapped me,” she says, remembering that when telling a lie, it’s always easiest to stick as close to the truth as possible.  _

_ “Assuming your story checks out—” _

_ “Which you’ve had plenty of time to do by now,” she cuts him off, which only earns her a slap to the face and another bucket of ice cold water dumped over her.  _

_ “So, assuming your story checks out,” he continues on as if nothing had happened while she shivers as a fan is turned on her. “Why would this man be looking to kill 88 people in Germany?” _

_ “You said it was 82,” she challenges him, no longer content with playing nice. She’s quickly learned that it doesn’t matter what she does, these men are out for blood.  _

_ “Six more died in the hospital last night,” he says. “Answer the question.”  _

_ “I have no idea,” she says. “It’s not as if I know the man well.”  _

_ “Make a guess,” he says consideringly.  _

_ “A guess,” she says with a laugh. “Cause that will hold up in court.”  _

_ She’s pulled off of the chair she’s sitting on and dragged to a wall by one of the Silence. That’s what she’s nicknamed the men who always sit in on her interrogation but never say a word. She used to have nightmares about the old villains on Doctor Who, so it’s a fitting name. An elbow goes across her throat, just tight enough to be uncomfortable, but not enough to cut off air supply.  _

_ “Fine,” she says, struggling against the hold until he lets go of her and yanks her back into the chair she’d been in.  _

_ “Abraham Sokolski’s parents were held at Auschwitz. He hates Germany and anyone associated with Nazi practices,” she says.  _

_ “That’s an awful lot of information for a man you don’t know,” her interrogator says. _

_ “He liked to talk,” she says, praying that she didn’t give herself away by divulging that little fact about her grandparents. _

_ “So the man’s looking for revenge for the holocaust. What does that have to do with the Reichstag building?”  _

_ Felicity stares at him for a long moment, waiting for him to give any indication that he’s joking. There cannot honestly be a way he doesn’t know the significance of the building. Even if he didn’t know his WWII history, once the attack happened, somebody would have started researching the building’s history for any indication as to what had triggered the attack. A simple Google search would have told him about it’s role in the rise of the Third Reich.  _

_ “Oh, you’re serious?” she asks, which only causes the Silence to turn the fan on full blast. “Fine. The Reichstag fire in 1933 was basically the catalyst to Hitler gaining control over Germany and reeking havoc on the world, in particular, the Jewish population. You can imagine, as a Jewish man, Abraham Sokolski isn’t a fan.”  _

_ “Ms. Queen, you’re Jewish,” her interrogator says.  _

_ “Yes,” she confirms, unsure of where he’s going with this.  _

_ “Well, you expect me to believe that you didn’t know this Abraham Sokoloski man before your supposed kidnapping?”  _

_ “It’s not like all Jewish people know each other?” she says defensively. “It’s not like we all see each other at synagogue, then go to work at the bank together, counting our stacks of money, eating matzo.”  _

_ “Your cell phone was at the scene of the crime,” he says.  _

_ “And I told you it was taken from me when I was kidnapped.”  _

_ “You have just as much reason to hate Germany as Abraham Sokolski does,” he tells her. “Why don’t I tell you what I think happened.”  _

_ “Yes, please do,” she says with a roll of her eyes.  _

_ “You and Abraham Sokolski are working together on this,” he says.  _

_ Felicity resists the urge to tell him that technically, it’s ‘Abraham and you.’ God, he’s just as dumb as the rest of them.  _

_ “You’re the money and the tech,” he says. “With your position at Palmer Tech you could pretty much commission anything you wanted. Only, you’re a pretty big public figure. You’d need a good cover story for your absence from work for so long as you went to work with Abraham. So you faked your own kidnapping.”  _

_ “Of course,” she says. “I left my children at home, abandoned my family, and beat myself up. I broke my own arm, right?”  _

_ “Had to make it look believable,” he says. “Only, we’re not buying it. I think that you knew exactly what you were doing and that you figured you would get caught doing it. Only, you assumed that with your money and your husband’s political connections, you wouldn’t see a day in jail. But you’re wrong. See, you didn’t count on us.”  _

_ “Are you bragging about how you’re holding me here illegally without trial and refusing me my legal right to an attorney?” Felicity asks. “God! You guys are too much. You know that the second I get out of here, I’m pressing charges and you’ll be the ones in a jail cell.”  _

_ “You’re making one really big assumption there,” he says with a smirk. “You’re assuming you’re ever going to get out. If Germany gets their way, you’ll be extradited there and executed promptly. If not… well, we’ve got a long list of men who are begging for the chance to put a bullet between your eyes.” _

_ “Germany abolished the death penalty in 49.” she says. Occasionally, her love of history pays off.  _

_ “I’m sure they’d make an exception for you,” he says. “The people are calling for your head.” _

_ “I’m not going to die,” she says, sounding a lot more confident about that fact than she actually feels. _

_ Right about now, she’d do anything to know that there’s a light at the end of this very dark tunnel. To know that at some point they are going to let her see Oliver and make sure he’s alright. That this mess will all get cleared up and she’ll be allowed to go home to see her family. She’s desperate to see her girls again. _

_ Right now, the only thing keeping her sane is knowing that if she loses her mind in this place, she won’t be of sound enough mind to escape this place. _

_ She knows that at some point, somehow, somebody is going to mess up. Some guard isn’t going to tighten her shackles tight enough, somebody is going to turn their head, and she’ll have her opening. The only thing is, she has to be alert enough to be able to take it. _

_ So no matter how many ways they try to torture her, she can’t let them break her. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Always, a big thanks to you guys for your continued support! Your comments give me life and the continued motivation to finish this beast of a story. So all my love! <3


	18. Falling Slowly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Felicity breaks while being held captive...
> 
> Meanwhile, in the present storyline, the team tries to figure out what to do about The Final Order.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First and foremost, I want to apologize for the long time it took to update. First, I was hit with a crazy amount of work while starting a new teaching job. Then, the longer it took to update, the less motivated I became. Not gonna lie, I mentally wasn't in a good place. I starting thinking that nobody would care if I finished this story or not. 
> 
> Thankfully, I've got some wonderful friends that helped me see that was stupid and this story deserves to see it's end. Only 6 more chapters to go after this til the end! 
> 
> Special shout out to Mel and Emma for helping me finish this one!
> 
> ***As always, heed the warnings***

 

**2026**

When Felicity opens her eyes the next morning, it’s to see Grace and Ella standing above her. Ella has her hands on her hips and is tapping her foot on the floor, giving Felicity a look that screams annoyance. It’s the look she wears every morning. The one that says, “I’m hungry and waiting to be fed.” Grace is a different story. Rather than begging for permission to be allowed to cook, like she usually is, she’s looking at her with confusion. There’s a glimmer of something more behind her eyes. It’s a look Felicity knows well. It’s the look Oliver’s been giving her for years. One of guarded hope.

“I’m hungry and there’s no cereal,” Ella says in her overdramatic fashion. 

“Okay,” Felicity says, sitting up and rubbing sleep from her eyes. “I’m sure there’s something to eat downstairs.” 

Grace’s eyes go to Oliver, who is still sleeping against the wall where Felicity had just been laying in his lap. Felicity knows exactly what Grace is wondering. It’s the same thing that any kid old enough to truly understand divorce would wonder upon finding their parents sleeping next to one another. Felicity wants to reassure her, but she thinks that’s probably news they should tell the girls together.

“Come on,” she says, standing up and motioning towards the door. “We don’t want to wake your dad.” 

“Their dad’s already awake,” Oliver says, but doesn’t open his eyes. 

Felicity understands. It’s the reluctance that every parent feels when one of their children comes into the room to wake them up. That moment of — if they think I’m still sleeping, maybe they’ll go back to bed. 

“Oh thank god!” Ella says, throwing herself into Oliver’s lap. “Now you can cook us something!” 

“I can cook!” Felicity says in mock outrage. She’s long since accepted that the girls will always choose a meal from Oliver over a meal from her. Hell, Felicity would always choose a meal prepared by Oliver! Perhaps now that they are back together, she won’t have to live on takeout.

“Okay, Mommy,” Ella says with a nod of her head that doesn’t even remotely convey any belief in the words she’s saying. “But this time, can we just let Daddy cook? It makes him feel helpful.” 

“Oh it does, does it?” Oliver says with a surprised chuckle as he goes to tickle Ella’s side. She begins laughing hysterically and throwing herself from side to side in an effort to make Oliver stop. 

Through all of this, Grace remains quiet. 

“What’s up, Baby?” Oliver asks, reaching his hand out for her. Grace doesn’t move towards him like she usually would. Instead, she shifts on her feet. Felicity notices both of her hands are in a fist and her thumbs are rubbing over her fingers. Interesting, she isn’t sure when Grace picked up that nervous habit from Oliver. 

“What is it?” Felicity asks, even though she knows exactly what it is. She wants to give Grace the opportunity to speak for herself.

She puts her hand on Grace’s shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze. Grace looks up at her with wide, hesitant eyes, before shuffling into Felicity’s side. 

Her face is half buried in Felicity’s thigh when she finally asks, “Are you and Dad getting back together?” 

The second the question is asked, she buries her face completely in Felicity’s thigh so that nobody can see her face.

Felicity looks to Oliver, who already has his eyes on Felicity expectantly, like he needs to hear her answer just as much as Grace does. It’s sad. They talked about this last night and Felicity promised him that she was in this. Apparently, he’s still not confident. She can’t blame him. She’s given him plenty of reason to doubt her over the last few years. 

“Yeah. Your dad and I are together,” she says, looking at Oliver for confirmation and he smiles in response. 

In fact, the only other times she’s seen him smile this big is on their wedding day and upon holding Grace and Ella for the first time. He’s practically beaming.

“Really?” Grace says, letting go of her death grip on Felicity’s leg as her head pops up. Her eyes light up, but she’s biting her lip, afraid to show too much excitement. 

“Really,” Felicity says with a knowing smile.

Felicity may not know exactly how Grace is feeling. Her father walked out of her life when her parents split up. Grace has never had to wonder if her parents loved her the way that Felicity had to wonder about her father. However, Felicity knows the feeling of being 8 years old and wishing like hell for your family to be whole again. She can imagine what news like this means for Grace. 

“So you’re going to move back home?” Grace asks Oliver. 

“Well…” Oliver trails off as he looks to Felicity who just shrugs. “We haven’t worked out all the details yet.” 

“But Daddy has a home,” Ella says, looking back and forth between everyone, completely confused. She’s never known anything but their current situation. She was just an infant when they separated. 

“Yes, but he could get rid of his home and come live with us in Mom’s house again,” Grace says, nodding her head at Ella in the way she always does whenever she’s trying to get her sister to agree with her.

“But where would Aunt Thea live?” Ella asks. 

“With Uncle Roy,” Grace says with a roll of her eyes. “They are getting married and going to have their own home now.” 

“We’ve still got time to work all the details out,” Felicity says, trying to defuse the situation before it can become an argument. “Why don’t we let your dad make us something delicious to eat.”

Oliver takes that as his cue and stands up, Ella in his arms. They all make their way down the stairs and into the kitchen. The girls sit down at the table and watch Oliver open all the cabinets and drawers trying to find them something suitable to eat. 

“Don’t you want Mom and Dad to get married again?” Grace asks Ella. 

Felicity’s breath catches at Grace’s words and she can see the subtle shifts in Oliver’s movements that lets her know he’s heard them, even if he’s pretending he didn’t. 

“Ooooh! Yeah! Mommy! Do it! You could wear a pretty dress!” Ella exclaims loudly. “Daddy, don’t you think Mommy would look really pretty in a white princess dress?” 

“Your mom always looks pretty,” Oliver says, slyly avoiding the subject of marriage entirely. 

The two of them haven’t even been back together for 12 hours yet. They are nowhere near ready to discuss marriage. 

“Well, yeah,” Ella says, like Oliver’s statement was the most obvious fact in the world. “But I mean like,  _ really _ pretty. Like Cinderella pretty!” 

“Cinderella?” Oliver asks, turning around to give Felicity a once over, looking doubtful. Felicity crosses her arms and dares him to say something to the contrary. She knows that she’s hardly looking her best. The circles under her eyes alone have to be terrifying. That doesn’t mean she wants Oliver pointing them out. 

“I always thought of your mom as more of a Belle than a Cinderella,” he says, giving her a wink. 

She uncrosses her arms and rolls her eyes at him to cover up the blush she’s sure has spread across her cheeks.

“What are we talking about?” Thea asks, entering the room. She’s already dressed and ready for the day. 

Felicity’s not even sure when she got here or how she’s gotten a clean set of clothes. Oliver had told her there was no way they could possibly stop by their places to get any of their things. They’d all slept in the clothes they’d been wearing the day before. Leave it to Thea Queen to always be dressed to the nines even when confined to a safe house. 

“Aunt Thea! Mommy and Daddy are getting married!” Ella exclaims. 

Thea’s mouth actually drops in shock and Felicity wonders if it’s possible for somebody’s eyes to actually fall out of the sockets from shock.

“I’m sorry, what?” Thea asks. 

Oliver opens his mouth to talk, but can’t seem to make the words come out as his entire face turns red. Felicity isn’t sure if she’s ever seen him look so flustered and out of place. The only time he’s come close is the first time he asked her to dinner, all those years ago. 

“Grace was mentioning to Ella that she thought it would be nice if we got married again,” Felicity explains, her voice catching on the word married. 

Realistically, she knows it’s not a possibility. She knows that they’ve only just gotten back together. There is still so much more they need to work out. They have to discover how they work as a couple now that the years have changed them both. Marriage isn't even up for discussion. Still, her voice catches on the word married and she can’t help the flutter of emotion at the thought of walking down an aisle again to Oliver while all of their friends and family look on. 

“Felicity and I told the girls this morning that we are…” Oliver trails off, looking at Felicity again, like he wants so badly to say the words but he’s still so nervous the second he says them he’ll wake up to find out it was all a dream.

“Oliver and I are together,” she says, meeting his eyes and silently letting him know it’s alright. He doesn’t have to be so afraid. This is real.

“No way!” Thea says, her voice getting nearly as loud as Ella’s. “That’s great, you guys!” she says, moving to give them both a hug. “I’m so happy for you!” 

“Thanks,” Felicity says awkwardly.

She hadn’t really thought about telling people and what their reaction would be when she told Oliver she was ready to try again. Her only thought had been on Oliver and his reaction to the news. It’s not that she doesn’t want everyone to know. She’s not ashamed of her decision. However, seeing everyone’s shock and excitement just makes her feel guilty for breaking up with Oliver in the first place.

“Rather than embarrass your folks any further, let’s talk about a different wedding. Mine,” Thea says, pulling Grace up long enough to steal her chair and pull her into her lap. 

“Aunt Thea’s dress is really pretty,” Ella tells Felicity, like she hasn’t told her this repeatedly over the last few months, ever since Thea took the girls with her to go dress shopping. 

Thea smiles with pride at Ella’s comment. 

“It really is kind of awesome,” Thea says. “Harper’s not going to know what hit him.”

“I just hope he cries so that I can get him back for all the crap he’s given me over the years,” Oliver says. He’s standing in front of the stove, mixing something in a bowl. Felicity’s not sure at what point he’d started cooking or what he’s preparing for them, but her stomach grumbles in anticipation. 

“Oh, he’s going to cry,” Thea says with a laugh. “Roy’s a crier.” 

She looks shocked at what she said and immediately adds, “Don’t tell him I told you that.” 

“Why not? Boys are allowed to cry,” Ella says. “That’s what Ms. Walker says every day when Andrew Bowen cries.”

“And how often  _ does _ little Andrew Bowen cry?” Oliver turns to ask with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Oliver.” Felicity tries to give him a warning look, but it fails when she can’t help but smile, too. The Bowens are constantly going on and on about how perfect their kids are, but Felicity doesn’t buy it. They are demon children and she’s debated the morality of hacking into the school’s mainframe to get the Bowen’s transferred to a different class on more than one occasion.

“He can’t cry any more than Jillian Bowen,” Grace says with a roll of her eyes. 

“Alright, alright,” Felicity says. As much as she could spend all day trash talking the Bowens, and has, she doesn’t like to do so in front of the girls. It’s not the kind of behavior she wants to teach her kids. “I think your Aunt Thea was talking about her wedding?” 

“Thank you,” Thea says with a smile.

“Only 13 more days to go,” Oliver says. “You getting nervous?” 

“About the event or the groom?” Thea asks with a laugh. 

“Both,” he says as he begins pouring pancake batter onto a skillet. 

“Yes to the first, no to the second,” she says. “I’m 100% sure I want to marry Roy, but 0% sure about our chosen date. I feel like there are a million things to do and zero time to do it. What with our… extra curricular activities and all.”

“You can say you’re super heroes,” Grace says, lifting her head off of Thea’s shoulder to give her an unamused look. “Ella and I aren’t dumb.” 

“Nobody said you’re dumb,” Oliver interrupts. “I just don’t think you two need to hear all of the details about what we do.” 

“I’m just saying, you don’t have to be so secretive,” Grace says. “We know that we’re here because you guys are part of Team Arrow.” 

“I thought we’re here so that the bad men can’t take us again,” Ella says. 

No sooner have the words left Ella’s lips, Oliver drops the pancake batter all over the floor and shatters the glass bowl it was in. 

“Shit,” Oliver says loudly, causing both girls to jump in shock.   
He’s not one to swear often, especially not in front of the girls. He kneels down on the ground and begins picking up the pieces of glass with shaky hands. 

“Are you alright?” Thea asks. 

Felicity stands up and moves to Oliver’s side, careful not to step on any glass with her bare feet. She gently pulls Oliver’s hands away and waits patiently until he finally meets her eyes. 

“I’m sorry. The bowl just slipped,” he says, but his voice sounds off. She knows that he’s just barely holding back tears. The last thing the girls need is to see their dad fall apart. 

“Why don’t we go upstairs and get you cleaned up,” Felicity suggests. 

“But… Breakfast,” he says, and he’s sounding so out of it, that she’s not entirely convinced he’s even here anymore and not trapped in a memory. 

“Thea will get the girls fed,” Felicity reassures him before turning to Thea. “Do you mind?” 

“Not at all,” Thea says, jumping up out of her seat and setting Grace down before moving into the kitchen to grab a broom to clean up the mess.

Felicity takes Oliver’s hand and leads him to the stairs slowly, aware that any sudden movements may cause him to lash out. 

“I’m okay,” he says, but she’s not convinced. 

She leads them to their room and shuts the door behind them. 

“Oliver—” 

No sooner have the words left her mouth, she watches in shock as he crumbles to the floor. She completely forgets what she’d been about to say. 

He’s not crying. Not as far as she can tell. But he is breathing heavily, like he’s having a panic attack. 

She isn’t sure what to do at first. She doesn’t know if he wants her to touch him or not. Back when they were married, he’d always told her not to come near him when he was in caught in a nightmare because he didn’t want to wake up and hurt her while he was still disoriented. However, he’s not in a nightmare right now.

She crouches down next to him and tentatively reaches out a hand to place it on his back. He immediately pulls her into his arms and wraps his arms around her, burying his face in her neck. 

“It’s okay,” she says, running her hands through his hair in an effort to comfort him. She can feel him making an effort to slow down his breathing, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

She isn’t positive what this is all about, but she can guess. Last night hadn’t been kind to any of them and Oliver’s always taken the weight of the world on his shoulders. Between Felicity’s close call and the girls almost getting kidnapped, it’s no wonder he’s having a panic attack. 

“You’re okay. We’re all okay.” 

“I know,” he says, trying to convince himself more than he is trying to convince her. 

“We’re safe here,” she says. “Everyone is okay.”

It takes a few more minutes for Oliver to get his breathing under control, but once he does, he pulls away from her and looks embarrassed. 

“I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m not sure what that was.” 

“It was a panic attack,” she tells him gently. “Is it because of what Ella said?”

Oliver nods his head, but doesn’t say anything.

“You did everything you could,” she says, reaching out for him, but he shifts ‘til he’s out of reach. She knows he must be seriously punishing himself if he’s refusing comfort. 

“It wasn’t enough,” he says. “If Wayne hadn’t shown up…” 

“Oliver, you kept our girls alive,” she says, to which he can only scoff. “I’m serious. The Order was in the lair. They were going to kill you all. You fought them off. The girls would have been dead long before Batman showed up to help. You are the reason that our girls are alive right now.” 

“But—”

“No buts,” Felicity says, holding up her hand to stop whatever excuse he’s going to give her next. “There is a reason we work as a team. One person can’t do it all. You need help sometimes. This time, it came in the form of Batman. Would you be beating yourself up this much if it had been Thea, Roy, or Dig that had shown up to help?” 

He doesn’t answer, but he doesn’t have to. She knows the truth. 

“I know you don’t like him,” she says. 

“No… He’s alright,” Oliver says begrudgingly. “In fact, he’s well trained. He’s not the worst friend to have on speed dial.” 

“Nobody uses speed dial anymore,” she teases, trying to lighten the mood. 

It works, he gives her a small smile. 

“We should probably head back downstairs,” Oliver says. “Thea’s almost as helpless in the kitchen as you are and Ella will get really crabby soon if we don’t feed her.” 

“She is my kid after all,” Felicity says with a chuckle. 

Oliver reaches out his hand and helps Felicity to her feet.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asks.

“Yeah, I just needed a minute,” he says with a nod. 

She watches him carefully for any lingering signs that he’s lying, but for the most part, he seems better now. Then again, she’s known Oliver a long time. He’s really good at repressing his emotions and not dealing with them until they explode out of him. She’s sure his panic attack today won’t be the last time she has to talk him off a ledge over what happened last night. 

She pulls him in for a hug, and he comes willingly. It’s a start. 

As she rubs his back and whispers reassurances into his ear, she’s reminded of happier times. Nights spend on the beach in Bali, wrapped in each other’s arms without a care in the world. Of their wedding night, surrounded by all of their loved ones but they only had eyes for each other. Of whispered promises to each other in the night, when nothing could tear them down so long as they had each other.

It reminds her of times when the world was kinder, before she became so tainted. 

Taking care of Oliver like this, like she used to, it makes her feel more like herself again.

********

**2021**

_ Oliver counts the days based on meals, though he knows it’s an imperfect method. There are many days he’s positive they don’t feed him at all. There are too many times that the hunger gnaws at him too greatly for him to be getting fed on a regular basis. However, without windows or a regular guard schedule, he has no other option for marking time.  _

_ By his calculation, he’s been here in this prison for 16 days. Which means Felicity has been here for 16 days.  _

_ His beautiful, loving Felicity has been here in this hell hole for over two weeks. She’s been tortured, starved, and deprived of sleep, and he’s been unable to do a damned thing about it. He’d rescued her from one nightmare only to bring her straight to another.  _

_ Oliver stopped screaming for her after the first few days. He’d learned the dangers of doing so the hard way.  _

_ The guards, growing frustrated with his constant yelling, had forcibly pulled him out of his cell and brought him to Felicity. The punishment for being given exactly what he’d asked for? She had been dragged out and tortured right in front of him.  _

_ All of Slade and Shado’s tutelage… All of his time spent with ARGUS… His time with the Bratva… Ra’s al Ghul’s training… His tenure as the Green Arrow… It’d been for nothing. It’d meant nothing. He’d been completely useless. Oliver hadn’t been able to help her at all as she cried out for him.  _

_ The guards had chained him to the wall and laughed while he struggled against the restraints, desperate to get to her. With her every cry of pain, he grew more desperate. He’d actually popped his shoulder out of it’s socket trying so hard to get to her; to help her. _

_ Each of her screams hit Oliver harder than if he’d been on the receiving end of their beatings, and the guards knew it. They reveled in it. It went on like that for hours, until the guards had finally had their fill of fun for the day. As he was unchained from the wall, Felicity had whispered, “I can’t do this.”  _

_ It was those words that had finally broken him. They were the catalyst for a broken nose, three broken wrists, and a broken femur. Oliver had fought back like no other, trying to get to her as she sobbed for him to make it stop. He had just made it to her side and was picking her up, despite his dislocated shoulder, when he’d been hit with a tranquilizer. _

_ Needless to say, Oliver doesn’t fight back anymore. He doesn’t cry out for Felicity. He’s too scared that it will provoke them. He’s terrified that any outburst will cause them to take their anger out on her. After all, they know she’s his trigger now. Torturing Felicity for his disobedience? It’s what any smart enforcer would do. Oliver should know. That’d been one of his many jobs when he’d worked for the Bratva.  _

_ Instead, he shut down after that. If he’s learned anything over the years, it’s that the only way to survive something like this is to box up his emotions and shove them to a corner of his brain where he won’t have to deal with them. If he spends all of his time crying over Felicity, he’ll never get them out of here. He needs to be level-headed. Emotionless. She needs him to be completely focused because she certainly doesn’t have the wherewithal to be.  _

_ Felicity doesn’t need her husband, Oliver Queen, right now. She needs The Hood. She needs Al Sa-him. She needs the monster that he’s spent years distancing himself from. He’d made a promise to himself long ago that he would never become the man he was trained to be. Never again… But to get Felicity home to their daughters? He’ll do anything.  _

****

**2026**

“We’re never going to end this by taking out footmen,” Oliver tells the group later on that morning as they all sit around the kitchen table of the safehouse trying to come up with their next move. 

“I agree, but we have no idea who’s in charge,” Thea says. “If we did, we’d have gone after them already.” 

They can’t go home until The Final Order is destroyed, once and for all. With The Order finding out Oliver is The Green Arrow, none of them are safe. The events of yesterday proved that. The longer they wait, the more likely it is that The Order will find them, even in an ARGUS safehouse. 

They need to come up with a plan, and so far, any idea they’ve had has been shut down in one way or another. 

“Felicity, did you overhear anything last night that could give us a clue as to who may be running things or where their base of operations is?” Digg asks. 

Felicity shrugs, “Not really.

“Why don’t you talk us through what happened anyway,” Thea says. “Maybe you missed something.” 

“I didn’t miss anything,” Felicity says, defensively. “I walked in on Anna with a bomb to her chest, defused it and by the time that was done, the sprinklers went off and we were too disoriented to notice anything else. The Order didn’t come in until after that Fear Toxin had been released.” 

“Did Anna say anything?” 

“What do you know about the bomb, maybe there’s a clue there.” 

“What did you hallucinate?” 

Felicity rubs her eyes in exhaustion as they pepper her with a bunch of questions at once. Oliver raises his hand to silence them and reaches out to put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

He waits until she lowers her hands from her face and looks up at him.  

“Maybe you saw more than you realize,” he says, gently. He doesn’t want to hound her for details about what happened yesterday, but he also doesn’t want to miss anything important. Not if it might lead them to catching The Final Order. 

“I really don’t think so,” she says, shaking her head. “I was out of my mind. I thought a ghost was chasing us. Then after he said my name I thought it was…” she stops and takes a deep breathe. “I didn’t see anything useful.” 

Oliver eyes her closely and knows that there’s something she’s not saying. Why did she cut herself off from telling them who she thought she saw? His eyes narrow as he watches her wring her hands under the table, a clear sign of distress. 

“Who did you think you saw?” he asks. 

“Nothing,” she says. “It’s not important.” 

“It could be,” Roy says. 

Felicity looks around the table, then looks back to him with pleading eyes before whispering, “He called me Klara.”

Oliver feels his blood turn to ice. He hasn’t heard that name in years.

“Who’s Klara?” Digg asks, clearly having overheard. 

Oliver sometimes forgets just how little the rest of them actually know about what happened when they were away and why. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Felicity says. “Whoever I thought was there, they are dead. So clearly I was hallucinating.”

“Okay, but shouldn’t we consider the possibility that—” 

“They are dead,” Felicity says, cutting Thea off with a glare. “Now can we get on to more logical next steps, because I really don’t want to have to stay here with the girls another night if we don’t have to.”

“Just saying, it wouldn’t be the first time that somebody’s come back from the dead,” Thea says, reluctant to drop it. 

Oliver doesn’t know what to do. On one hand, he understands what a touchy subject Abraham is for Felicity and wants to get them to stop talking about it before she breaks again. He’s only just gotten her back, after all. On the other hand, Thea does have a point. Though, Oliver watched Felicity kill Abraham and there’s no way he could have survived. 

“I thought it was my dad, okay?” Felicity says, clearly upset that Thea wouldn’t drop it. “My very dead dad. The Fear Toxin did exactly what it was supposed to do. It showed me my greatest fear. That, along with the fact that I ran away from a ghost, a zombie, and dementors should tell you that I was high as a kite and not to be trusted. Now, can we  _ please _ move on?” 

They all nod, and Oliver reaches out to grab onto her hand, giving it a squeeze. She looks back at him and sighs. “I’m sorry,” she whispers. 

“You don’t have to apologize,” he leans in to whisper into her ear. “I get it.” 

She gives him a small smile and they both focus their attention back on the group. 

“I think Anna knows more than she’s letting on,” Lance says as he enters the safe house holding a folder. Oliver immediately stands up to check the door. Once he’s sure it’s been locked, he looks out the window for any sign that Lance had been followed. 

“Don’t worry,” Lance says. “I’m clear. I had eyes on me when I got to the station, but I lost them. They think I’m headed south out of town.” 

“You’re sure?” Oliver asks, hating that he has to ask, but not willing to compromise their safety. 

“I’m positive,” he says. “I wouldn’t be here if I thought it would endanger anyone. I lost them.” 

Oliver watches Lance carefully, looking for any hesitance, but when he sees none, he nods in acceptance.

“Alright, what did you find?” Oliver asks, taking the folder from Lance and walking over to the table. 

“Our girl Anna knows more than she’s telling,” Lance says. 

“We are not interrogating my assistant,” Felicity says. “She’s been through enough already. She’s a victim here as much as we are.” 

“And while I feel bad for her, I really do, the woman brought a bomb into Palmer Tech with the intent to kill you as well as every other staff member in that building,” Lance says.

“She was blackmailed,” Felicity argues. “They were going to kill her family.” 

Felicity looks to him for support, but he can’t give it to her. Not in this. 

“I’m sorry,” he says regretfully. “But Quentin’s right. I know that Anna is one of your best friends, but she tried to kill you — noble reason or not. We can’t trust anybody right now. We need to find out what she knows.” 

“I refuse to let them make me start doubting the people I trust,” she says. “If we can’t trust each other, then what do we have?” 

“I trust everyone in this room,” Thea says, crossing her arms in a challenge.

Felicity looks like she’s about to murder Thea. 

“Nobody is suggesting that Anna is a member of the Order. We are simply saying that she’s clearly communicated with them before. She probably knows more than she’s letting on but is too afraid to tell us,” Roy says, raising his hands in surrender.

Oliver sends him an appreciative look as Felicity settles back in her seat. 

“They were going to kill her family,” Felicity says, losing steam fast. “Any one of us would have done far worse...” 

She trails off before she can finish her thought, but he hears it loud and clear. Each and every single one of them knows that even the best of people do bad things in order to save the ones they love. Each and every one of them has done unspeakable things to protect their family.

“I know,” Lance says, with a kind smile. “But her family is safe now. Ours isn’t. So somebody needs to convince her to give us the whole story.” 

“Maybe if I just run one more computer search we’ll find something without having to involve Anna,” Felicity says. 

They all give her a doubtful look that causes her shoulders to slump. “Well fine. But if anyone is going to talk to her, it’s me.” 

“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” Digg asks. 

Felicity glares at him for even suggesting it and Digg throws his hands up in surrender. 

“I’ll come with you,” Oliver says, moving to stand up with her. 

Digg moves to stand up with them, but Oliver puts his hand on his shoulder to stop him. “I need you to stay and watch the girls for me.” 

He can’t leave Grace and Ella without being absolutely certain that they will be safe. Not after what happened last night. 

“Of course,” Digg says. “I just need to talk to you for a minute. Privately.” 

Oliver nods, telling Felicity to grab her coat and that he’ll be right behind her. He then leads Digg into the living room. 

“What’s going on?” Oliver asks. 

“Are you sure that her dad is dead?” Digg asks quietly, mindful of how easily sound travels in this house. 

“He’s not her dad,” Oliver says. The hair on the back of his neck stands up everytime somebody refers to that monster as her father. No father could ever have done what he did to Felicity. 

“Okay, fine. Are we sure that Abraham is dead?” Digg asks again. 

“Absolutely,” he says, thinking back to that day when Felicity killed him. 

“There’s not even a slim possibility that he survived?” 

“No. Felicity…” he pauses, still not comfortable talking about that day with anyone, but Digg knows more of the truth than anyone else. He knows that Felicity had been the one to kill Abraham. He doesn’t know the full extent of everything that went down in Israel or everything that Felicity did, but he knows enough. “She was thorough. He’s not coming back.” 

“Okay,” Digg says, nodding his head. “I guess it’s like Felicity said, it was just a hallucination. I would just hate for any of us to be caught off guard by that man again.” 

“He’s gone,” Oliver says, with finality. “If there was even the slightest chance he was still alive, do you think I would really ignore that possibility?” 

“Of course not.” 

“Okay,” Oliver says. “Besides, The Order are the very people Abraham was trying to stop with his reign of terror. He’d never connect himself with an Anti-semitic terrorist organization.”

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity has, quite frankly, lost count of all the ways they have of torturing her in this god forsaken place. It seems like each day, they come up with a new and creative way of breaking her. They want information from her, but she doesn’t have the information they want. She’s already told them everything she can about Abraham. They just don’t care. They don’t believe her. And unless they find her father, they never will.  _

_ She’s not even sure if they are actually looking for him or if they are so convinced that they have their guilty party in custody that they don't care about finding him. With each passing day, she’s more and more sure that it’s the latter.  _

_ They don’t care about the truth. The only thing they want from her is a confession — real or not. Which is crazy, because if they really have as much evidence on her as they claim to have, they don’t need a confession to prosecute.  _

_ Still, each day they come to drag her out of her cell, and each day they ask her the same questions. Who is she working for? Why did she do it? What else was she planning?  _

_ There have been so many times that she’s come close to giving them the confession they so desperately want, just to make it all stop. She's always thought of herself as a strong person, but she doesn't know how much longer she can take this. One day, pretty soon, she's going to break.  _

_ She’s not stupid. She knows that, no matter what they may tell her, all that a confession will do is expedite her death. But she's getting to the point that she doesn't care. She’d do just about anything for a moment of rest.  _

_ “Maybe death’s not such a bad thing,” Moira tells her. _

_ Felicity closes her eyes tight and wills Oliver’s mother to go away. She doesn’t want her whispering into her ear all day about what a horrible person Felicity is. She doesn’t need to hear about how she’d be better off dead. Not again.  _

_ The hallucinations used to only come to her when they put her in sensory deprivation, but ever since she’d gotten sick a few days ago, they are constant.  _

_ “It’s not going to stop,” Moira says. “They are going to keep pushing you until there’s nothing left. Look at what you’ve become, Felicity. You can’t be what your daughters need. You sure as hell can’t be what Oliver needs. Not anymore. You saw how much it broke him to see you. He nearly got himself shot trying to save you. What kind of loving wife allows that?”  _

_ Felicity shakes her head, too weak to ask Moira to stop. She can’t handle it anymore.  _

_ At least the physical pain, as awful as it can be, she can handle. Whenever it gets too bad, she blacks out. Her body has a way of taking care of her that way. Of making sure that she’s never awake for the absolute worst of it.  _

_ It’s the emotional torture that is getting to her. The hallucinations are so vivid. So incredibly real that she’s almost convinced that Moira Queen is actually working for the US military, along with Malcolm Merlyn, Slade Wilson, and Abraham Sokolski.  _

_ She can’t do it anymore. She isn’t sure how she’s survived this long in the first place. She’s been holding on for the sake of her family. Knowing that Oliver is in this building likely going crazy at the thought of her in pain… Likely being tortured himself… Knowing that Grace and Ella are at home waiting for her? She’s been fighting for them.  _

_ However, what if Moira is right? Isn’t Felicity the worst thing that has ever happened to Oliver? He’d been free. After 5 awful years away and countless more years fighting the worst of the worst in Star City, Oliver deserves happiness. Instead, all Felicity has brought him is more pain.  _

_ And the girls? What kind of mother isn’t there for her newborn baby? Ella was still breastfeeding when Felicity was taken. Now, Ella is going to have an increased risk of infections and cancer. She’ll develop asthma. She even suffers an increased risk of SIDs. Her precious baby girl is going to be a walking timebomb and all because she wasn’t around to take care of her like a mother should.  _

_ And Grace… _

_ Felicity can’t even imagine the trauma that Grace is going through having watched Donna get stabbed and Felicity get kidnapped.  _

_ And then, as if all of that isn't awful enough, the girls lost Oliver because of her. If it wasn’t for Felicity getting kidnapped, Oliver would be at home right now with their daughters. They are going to be orphans and it is entirely her fault. _

_ She should have been better. Felicity should have fought harder to get back home when she was first taken. More than that, she should have noticed that the police officer that offered to drive them home wasn’t an officer at all.  _

_ She should have been better. _

_ The girls deserve better.  _

_ Maybe they are better off if she never makes it home. Thea can take the girls in as her own. Roy will certainly help raise them, along with Quentin and Donna.  _

_ Better yet, Felicity can find a way to make sure that Oliver makes it home to them, too. They deserve at least one parent, and Oliver is certainly the better option. _

_ “Felicity,” she hears a familiar whisper. She pries her eyes open and is surprised to see Oliver on the other side of the bars. He’s squatting down so that he can see her better. _

_ Felicity pushes herself up off the cement floor and uses her good arm to pull on the bars of her cell until she’s sitting up completely. She goes to speak, but suddenly finds herself coughing uncontrollably. When she pulls her hand away from her mouth, it’s covered in blood.  _

_ Over the past few days, she’s been getting sicker and sicker, but the military doctor they have monitoring her health has convinced everyone that she’s faking her sickness for sympathy. As if she would be that stupid. She knows there’s not an ounce of sympathy to be had in this hell hole. After all, nobody is going to cry over a terrorist. _

_ Once the coughing calms down, Felicity opens her mouth to talk. “Wha—”  _

_ Her voice is strained and it’s difficult to get her words out over how swollen her throat is, but she powers through.  _

_ “What are you doing here?” she asks.  _

_ “I convinced one of the guards to give us 5 minutes,” he says, reaching his hand through the bar to grab her own. The second his hand touches hers, she starts to cry. It’s been so long since anybody touched her with anything close to kindness, she’d almost forgotten what it felt like.  _

_ “Oliver—”  _

_ “Shhh, don’t try to talk,” he says. “They told me that you were sick, but I didn’t realize how bad it was… God, Felicity. I wish I could get us both out of here, I really do.”  _

_ She just shakes her head, trying to silently communicate that she doesn't blame him for the situation they are in. If anything, it’s her fault they are in this mess.  _

_ “I heard some of the guards talking,” he says. “They aren’t ever going to let you out of this place…”  _

_ “It’s okay,” she says, reaching out to brush away the tears from his own face.  _

_ “They said the only reason they are keeping me is as leverage against you,” Oliver says.  _

_ “I’m sorry,” she says through her sobs. “I never wanted this to happen.”  _

_ “I know you didn’t, I don’t blame you,” he says. “But Felicity, the girls…”  _

_ Felicity thinks about their two beautiful daughters at home and she knows what she has to do. She may not be getting out of this place in anything but a body bag, but that doesn’t mean that Oliver has to face the same fate.  _

_ Maybe if she were to confess to the bomb, she could persuade them that Oliver had nothing to do with it. She could make a deal. Her life for his freedom.  _

_ Oliver would be heartbroken, but he’d get over it eventually. He’d move on at some point. Find a nice woman to settle down with. The girls could have a new mother.  _

_ As much as that thought makes her sick, it also gives her strength. She may not be able to figure out a way back home. She may not deserve to go home. But she sure as hell can get Oliver back home to the girls.  _

_ “Oliver, you have to promise me, whatever happens… You will get home to the girls and you won’t come looking for me again,” Felicity says. _

_ “What are you talking about?” he asks.  _

_ “I’m going to get you out of here,” she promises. _

_ He must know exactly what she’s planning because he starts crying in earnest, shaking his head repeatedly.  _

_ “I would have moved heaven and Earth for you,” he says. _

_ “Now you can move heaven and Earth to keep our girls safe,” she says, trying to smile. “They’re going to need you. More than they ever needed me.”  _

_ “I’ll make sure they know they were loved,” he says. “They’ll be happy with me. I promise you, I’ll make sure they are. _

_ “I know you will,” she cries. “That’s why I’m doing this.”  _

_ Felicity closes her eyes as Oliver caresses her cheek and tries to savor the feeling as long as she can. She knows that after today, she won’t have it ever again. When she opens her eyes again, Oliver is gone. She hadn’t even heard the big metal door close behind him.  _

_ “You’re doing the right thing. You know… in another life, I think you could have been really good for My Oliver,” Moira says to her as she reaches out to caress Felicity’s hair. It’s the nicest thing that Moira has ever said to her.  _

_ “I loved him,” she cries. “I promise you that I loved him with everything in me.”  _

_ “I know you did,” Moira says, giving her a sad smile. “Now it’s time to prove it. Confess. Bargain for his freedom. They are never going to let you out of here, but Oliver still stands a chance.”  _

_ Felicity bites down on her lips and nods her head. She knows that Moira is right. Oliver had told her as much.  _

_ “I want to make a confession,” Felicity finally says, loud enough to be heard.  _

_ “Get the director. She’s ready to talk,” Cutthroat yells. _


	19. One Step Forward...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the long time between updates. There really is no excuse except for my serious lack of motivation to finish this story. Sorry guys! This chapter took a lot out of me and I knew it would... so I put it off. Hopefully, now that we are getting to some of the scenes I've been planning since the inception of this fic, the updates will come closer. I really would like to see this fic complete by the new year...

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

******2026**

Oliver sits in the living room of the safe house where the Whitmores are being kept, doing his best not to glare at Anna. It’s not an easy task. 

Prior to last night, Oliver had always liked Anna. She’s been a good assistant to Felicity and an even better friend. Felicity could always use more of those. But it’s hard to feel affection for a girl who brought a bomb into Palmer Tech with the intention of killing Felicity. It’s hard to like the girl who had teamed up with The Final Order, no matter what they were threatening. 

Anna sits on the couch next to Felicity, near tears. Her eyes are bloodshot and her hair is a tangled mess. It’s strange to see. She has always been one of those girls who puts a lot of time into her appearance. Oliver’s never seen her with a single hair out of place. So this is a state of vulnerability that he hadn’t expected. 

However, while her ratty appearance might be enough to have won over Felicity’s affection, it’s not enough for Oliver. 

“I’m really sorry,” Anna says.

“It’s okay,” Felicity tells her, reaching her hand out to place it on Anna’s trembling hands. 

“You aren’t mad at me?” Anna asks.

“What? For nearly getting Felicity killed along with everyone else in that building?” Oliver says, but Felicity cuts him off with a warning look. Oliver isn’t stupid enough to continue after that. After all, he’s only just now getting back into Felicity’s good graces, it’s not in his best interest to piss her off.

“We aren’t here to yell at you, are we, Oliver?” Felicity says through clenched teeth.

“Of course not,” Oliver says, plastering a smile on his face. 

Deep down, he knows that Felicity is right. This isn’t Anna’s fault, it’s the Order’s. Anna’s family had been in danger and it’s understandable that she would do whatever it took to protect them. But he’s still frustrated. 

Anna was supposed to be one of the people he could trust to look out for Felicity, and she’d turned on them instead of warning them. She may not have known Oliver is the Green Arrow, but she knew he was the mayor. She had to know that he had the resources to help.

“Anna, we came here to ask you some questions about The Final Order,” Felicity says. 

“I don’t know anything,” Anna says, shaking her head, frantically, which tells Oliver that Lance was right. Anna most certainly does know more. She’s just too scared to tell them.

“You’re safe here,” Felicity says, using that compassionate yet authoritative tone that always puts others at ease and gets them to open up. Oliver’s surprised. It’s been years since he’s heard her use it with anyone but the girls. 

“Anna, look at me.” Felicity waits until Anna meets her eyes before continuing. “They’ll kill you either way. You ruined their plan the minute you didn’t set off that bomb—” 

“Oh god!” 

“Anna, I need you to hear me when I say this to you,” Felicity says. “Are you listening?” 

Anna takes several deep breaths before nodding.

“You are safe here,” Felicity says. “I promise you that nothing can touch you in this house. Just as I promise you that we are going to find The Final Order and take them out, once and for all. But to do that, we need information, and I believe you can give it to us.”

“I can’t,” Anna cries. 

“You can,” Felicity says. “To protect your family from these monsters, you can and you will.” 

Anna seems hesitant at first, but after a few moments of silent deliberation, she eventually agrees. 

“What do you need?”

Felicity shoots him a relieved look before turning back to Anna.

“When did they first contact you?” Felicity asks. 

“It was when I first started volunteering at the new soup kitchen,” Anna says, pulling her sleeves down over her hands, nervously. “They asked me where I worked and when they found out that I was your assistant, they had a lot of questions.”

“What kind of questions,” Oliver asks, curiously. They’d assumed that Felicity had been targeted once The Final Order found out his identity, but the way Anna is making it sound, Felicity’s been on their radar a lot longer than a day or two. 

“Normal stuff,” Anna says with a shrug. “People want to know about her all the time when they find out what I do. What she’s like. If she’s really as smart as she seems. That kind of stuff. I didn’t think it was weird at first.” 

“So when did it start feeling weird?” Felicity asks. 

“They pulled me into the back room during one of my shifts, which was weird. I didn’t understand what they would need to talk to me about in private. Then they started asking me really personal questions about your schedule. I got uncomfortable and told them no,” Anna says.

“I’m guessing they didn’t like that,” Felicity says, not unkindly. 

Anna shakes her head and stares at the ground, unable to look either of them in the eyes. 

“I tried to leave, but they blocked the door,” she says quietly. “I…” 

Anna trails off. They both remain quiet, waiting for her to continue, but she doesn’t. 

“Anna, did they hurt you?” Felicity asks. 

Again, Anna doesn’t answer right away and Oliver gets a sinking feeling in his stomach that The Order did more than threaten her family. 

“They were really scary,” Anna whispers. “They started talking about building a better world and how I could either be on the right side of history or the wrong side. I told them that Palmer Tech was a good company, trying to better the world, but they didn’t listen… They started rambling on about a bunch of stuff I didn’t really understand. Then they left me alone with this man…” 

“Anna, you don’t have to tell us if you aren’t ready,” Felicity says with a shaky voice. 

“He didn’t hurt me,” Anna says, smiling through her tears. “He just scared me. He waved a knife in my face and told me that he would kill me if I didn’t give him what he wanted. So I gave him your schedule.” 

“You did the right thing,” Felicity says, pulling Anna into a hug. “You’re my assistant, not my bodyguard. It’s not your job to sacrifice yourself for me.” 

“I never wanted you to get hurt,” Anna cries. “I was just scared.” 

“I know,” Felicity says, shushing her. “Believe me. I know what it's like. It’s okay.” 

Oliver can see the memories of Felicity’s own time away flashing through her eyes, but they don’t break her like he expects them to. She seems bigger now — stronger. She’s not quite the woman he used to know, but she’s also not the grief stricken woman she’s been for the last 5 years either. 

The girls cry to each other for a few more minutes before Anna eventually pulls away. Oliver hands them both tissues from the box next to him. 

“Is that all you gave them?” Oliver asks. 

Anna shakes her head. 

“They threatened my family,” Anna says. “They told me that they would kill my family if I told anyone about them. And then they gave me an email address… Said that I was to contact them once a week with your schedule and answer any additional questions they might have, or they would hurt my family.”

“What was the email address?” Felicity asks, pulling out her tablet from her purse. Anna gives it to her and Felicity immediately begins running a search.

“Did you know the man that they left you with?” Oliver asks her. 

Anna shakes her head. “I’ve met him a few times since then, but they never use names.” 

“The email address traces back to Joseph Eichmann,” Felicity says, holding her tablet out for Oliver to see the man’s face. 

“He’s the guy that owns the Striker building downtown,” Oliver says, recalling meeting the man several times at various city events. 

“He’s also the guy that built the soup kitchen,” Felicity says. “It also functions as a shelter for homeless youth.” 

“How much do you want to bet he’s been using it as a front to find young, impressionable recruits?” Oliver says, shaking his head in frustration. 

It wouldn’t be the first time that somebody’s tried to get the homeless youth in Star City to join a terrorist organization with the promise of warm food, clean clothes, and everlasting glory. Several years back Brother Blood had tried the very same thing before Oliver was able to shut it down. 

“Anna, how long has this been going on?” Felicity asks. 

“A few months,” she says, blushing. 

“Oh my god,” Felicity says, her eyes widening in horror. “ _ That’s _ how they knew to attack Manuel Sanchez’s building. You told them!” 

“I’m so sorry,” Anna cries. “I didn’t know what they were going to do with that information.” 

“Well you had to know it wasn’t going to be good,” Felicity says. “We are building a fusion reactor. You knew we were keeping it quiet for fear of it ending up in the wrong hands and then you went and told the big bad about it anyway.” 

“I didn’t know what to do!” Anna yells. “They were going to kill my family!” 

“And a fusion bomb could kill us all,” Felicity says, shaking her head. “Anna, it’s one thing to give them personal information about me… but to have given them information that could help them start World War 3?” 

“Did they get it?” Anna asks, biting her lip. 

Felicity looks to him with terrified eyes. Of all the things they had to discuss last night, letting her know about the state of the fusion reactor wasn’t his first priority. 

“No,” Oliver says, as both women let out a sigh of relief. “They only think they did. Though I’m guessing it won’t be long before they figure out what we did.”

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity stumbles onto her feet, holding the bars of her cell for balance. The movement gives her vertigo. She tries to take a step forward, but her knees give out and she falls to the floor.  _

_ “Stand up,” Moira tells her. “You’re a Queen. There isn’t anything a Queen doesn’t do for their family.” _

_ Felicity shakes her head, because she’s not sure she can stand up.  _

_ “Get up, Felicity. You have to do this for Oliver and the girls. Just one last thing, then you can stop fighting,” Moira says.   _

_ Felicity nods her head, knowing that Moira is right. She has to do this. Just one more thing. It’s not even a hard thing. Nothing like the kinds of things Oliver has had to overcome in order to protect the people he loves. A few wobbly steps and a confession. That’s all she has to do to ensure her family’s safety.  _

_ She grabs onto the bars again and pulls herself back up to her feet and swallows down the nausea that the movement brings. She attempts to take another step forward, but her knees give out, yet again. She’s too weak to walk.  _

_ “Carry her,” Cutthroat says to Sergeant Jackass standing next to him. _

_ Jackass grabs her and picks her up, and Felicity immediately wants to shove him away, but she’s not strong enough. His hands are touching her bare legs. Hands that have brought her nothing but pain over the last several weeks are holding her close to his body. She wants to vomit and nearly does. This isn’t right. The only man that’s supposed to hold her like this is Oliver.  _

_ Oliver.  _

_ She’s never going to see him again. Never going to feel his arms wrap around her. Never going to feel his lips against her own. Never going to fall asleep next to him, the steady breathing and solid warmth reminding her that she’s safe. _

_ From the second she confesses to a terrorist attack, she’ll be signing her death sentence. Felicity isn’t naive, she knows what’s going to happen. Her confession will be her demise. No lawyer will be able to get her out of this once she goes on record as accepting the blame.  _

_ She watched ‘Making a Murder’ on Netflix. She knows it’s nearly impossible to prove a confession was coerced. This will be that times a million. It’s not just an entire city that will want her to hang for this. The entire world will.  _

_ Still, Moira is right. She can do this. For her family, she can do this.  _

_ “Don’t leave me,” Felicity whispers, terrified of what’s to come. Moira gives her a sad smile and nods.  _

_ Cutthroat leads them down the hall towards the interrogation room, but she’s confused when they pass it and continue on. She’s never gone farther than the interrogation room and has no idea where she is being brought. Maybe they are bringing her outside so that they can kill her as soon as she makes her confession. They’ll finally make good on their promise of death by firing squad. At least that will be quick.  _

_ Oh god, she starts to panic. She’s going to be dead within the hour.  _

_ What if they don’t even give her time to say the Viddui?  _

_ “It’s going to be alright,” Moira tells her, kindly. “This is for Oliver. It’s for Grace and Ella. They’re going to need their father, now more than ever.” _

_ “Does it hurt?” she whispers, the fear making it even harder to breathe.  _

_ “It’s quick. You’ll barely even feel it.”  _

_ Felicity nods and reminds herself that it doesn’t matter if they kill her. She’s doing this for her family. Her life for theirs. It’s the least she can do.   _

_ Felicity closes her eyes and fights back tears as she silently asks for forgiveness from all of her loved ones for the things she’s done to hurt them. She begs her daughters to forgive her for leaving them so young. Pleads with Oliver to know that she never meant to hurt him. Prays her mother will understand that she made the only choice she could. Hopes her friends will manage without her.  _

_ Then, when she’s ready, she starts reciting the Viddui in her head. She begins to say the prayer as her parents have taught her to do since she was young. It’s not the first time she’s said the prayers thinking she’s about to die, but without question, it will be her last. _

_ ‘I acknowledge before the Source of all, that life and death are not in my hands,’ she recites to herself, closing her eyes tight and trying not to think about where they are taking her.  _

_ ‘Just as I did not choose to be born, so I do not choose to die. May it come to pass that I may be healed but if death is my fate, then I accept it with dignity and the loving calm of one who knows the way of all things.’  _

_ She still remembers the first time her father taught her this prayer. He told her about how his parents taught him to say it if he ever felt death at his doorstep. He told her about how her grandmother had said the prayer as she rode a death train, knowing her future was disappearing with every mile they got farther away from home. She hadn’t expected to survive the day. He told her about how her grandfather had said the prayer three times a day, every day, during his stay at Auschwitz, expecting death to come at any second.  _

_ Felicity wonders if her grandparents had felt as lost and broken as she does, or if they were made of something stronger... If their survival showed that the enemy had never broken them… _

_ God, she’s not ready to die, but she doesn’t have a choice. She begins crying, and thankfully Moira continues the prayer. _

_ “God of Compassion, please hear my prayer on behalf of Felicity. Please forgive errors, intentional and unintentional, through omission and commission, for which she has not previously sought forgiveness, whether in her heart or spoken aloud. Let all be heard and forgiven,” Moira says.  _

_ She can hear a door click and Felicity opens her eyes to watch as she’s carried into a room and set down on a chair.  _

_ Moira continues to recite the Viddui as Felicity looks around confused.  _

_ The room isn’t anything fancy, but it’s the nicest room she’s she’s been in since coming here. The walls are white drywall rather than grey cement. The floor is carpeted, which feels like heaven under her bare feet. And the chair is padded, unlike the metal chair in the sensory deprivation room that’s always freezing, or the chairs in the interrogation room she’s never allowed to sit in.  _

_ “God of Healing, please bring peace to Felicity: gather her to our people and let her be remembered for the good,” Moira says.  _

_ Another soldier walks into the room carrying a professional quality video camera, followed by another man carrying in what looks like lighting equipment.  _

_ Her confession and ultimate death is going to be put on camera. Her final moments are going to be immortalized forever, like some twisted joke. She sobs, thinking about the possibility of her family seeing this. Of them seeing her at her worst, at her most broken.  _

_ This isn’t right. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. How did she get here?  _

_ “She’s going to completely wash out on camera,” the man holding the lighting equipment says. _

_ “It’s not a beauty competition. We don’t care how she looks, so long as she says what she needs to say,” Cutthroat says.  _

_ “You’ll care when her lawyer argues that she made her statement under extreme duress,” the man says, giving Cutthroat a pointed look.  _

_ Felicity hangs her head and continues to cry. She doesn’t even jump when Moira’s hands come to rest over her own. She’s kneeling in front of Felicity and Felicity can see Oliver in her. She’d never noticed it before, but they have the same eyes. They also have the same way of smiling through tears.  _

_ “Our God, Eternal help of our ancestors, bring comfort to Felicity’s loved ones and renew their spirits each day,” Moira says. Felicity focuses on her voice, trying her best to block out the rest. It helps keep her grounded. “May they be blessed in the shelter of your peace, comforted among all mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”  _

_ “Get Adams in here,” Cutthroat orders, breaking Felicity out of her thoughts and forcibly shoving her back into reality.  _

_ “Sh’ma Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad,” Felicity whispers the final words to herself, feeling her stomach turn to lead.  _

_ All that’s left now is to confess to the attack and await her death.  _

_ She stays quiet as she watches people come in and out of the room, setting up various filming equipment. She listens to the different conversations happening around the room and gathers enough information to realize that they are trying to make it appear that she’s being kept comfortable so that the American public won't protest how the military treats its prisoners.  _

_ They plan for her confession to end up on every media outlet by the end of the day and want to make sure not a single part of her confession or treatment here can be called into question. They want to guarantee a guilty verdict in the court of public opinion just as they’ve already determined her guilt.  _

_ It's all smoke and mirrors.  _

_ And her poor family is going to have to bear witness to it all. She hopes that they can see through this ridiculous charade and know the truth. That they’ll believe in her innocence regardless of what she says in her confession. She prays that they won’t be traumatized by having to witness her final moments on every TV screen in the country. She hopes that they can forgive her. After all, she’s doing all of this so that they can have Oliver back… And if she’s being entirely honest with herself, she’s doing it so that the pain will stop. She hopes they will forgive her for that as well.  _

_ Moira stands before her and leans over to place a kiss on Felicity’s forehead, much like Oliver always does to comfort her. _

_ “You’re a good mother and a good wife,” Moira tells her, before walking out the door and leaving her alone in this place.  _

_ A chill runs down her spine as she realizes she’s alone for the first time in a long time. It seems like her hallucinations have been a constant source of company — for better or worse — for so long now. She’d forgotten how lonely it feels to be sitting in a room full of people that want nothing more than to see her dead.  _

_ A woman walks into the room holding a fresh set of clothes and a black metal case, followed by another woman who has a towel draped over her shoulder and is carrying a big bowl of water.  _

_ “Everyone out,” the first woman says loud enough for everyone to hear, and surprisingly, they all comply without question. The woman must be pretty high up to demand such unquestioned respect.  _

_ Once the room is cleared and the door is shut behind them, the first woman turns to Felicity with a kind smile that Felicity’s sure is supposed to put her at ease, but she’s learned not to trust anything in this place. The men with the kindest smiles tend to hit the hardest.  _

_ “My name is Bethany Adams,” the woman introduces herself before pointing at the other woman who is placing the bowl of water at her feet. “And this is Nancy Williams.”  _

_ Felicity doesn’t say anything, but continues to watch them both carefully, waiting for them to turn on her. Maybe it will come in the form of a beating. Perhaps the water bowl is filled with acid… She doesn’t know. But she’s knows enough to pay close attention. _

_ “Why don’t we get you out of those dirty clothes and into a clean pair?” Bethany says. _

_ Felicity looks down at her filthy, torn dress. It’s the same one she’s had on since her kidnapping. She has no idea how long that’s been, but she’s guessing at least a month. Maybe two? The soldiers had tried to get her to change when she’d first arrived, but she refused to do so in front of them and they figured if she wanted to spend her time in a tattered dress that did nothing to protect her from the cold, then they weren’t going to stop her.  _

_ Despite the way that it’s posed as a question, Felicity’s guessing that changing isn’t a choice. Like they said, the American public needs to believe she’s been treated humanely, and living in clothes that are stained with blood and other bodily fluids doesn’t scream humane. _

_ Nancy moves behind Felicity while Bethany stands in front of her. Felicity flinches when Bethany reaches out to help her to her feet, expecting a punch that never comes. Once Felicity is standing, Nancy unzips her dress and tosses it towards a garbage can by the door.  _

_ Bethany gives her a once over, staring at Felicity’s body with calculating eyes. Perhaps she’s wondering how much force it will take to kill her. In her current condition, she can’t imagine it’s much. She’s been able to feel her ribcage and spine protruding for at least two weeks. _

_ “Nancy is going to help you get washed up,” Bethany says. “I’m going to go see about getting you some food. Does that sound good?”  _

_ It sounds like they’re going to poison her and call it an accident, is what it sounds like, but Felicity doesn’t say that. She doesn’t respond at all. If she’s going to make it to her confession without breaking down, she has to distance herself from her emotions. There’s nothing more that can be done anyway. She’s said her prayers. She’s asked for forgiveness. There’s nothing else left but to accept her death.  _

_ Bethany doesn’t wait for an answer before leaving the room.  _

_ “It’s okay,” Nancy says as she dips the towel into the water and then proceeds to wring out the excess water.  _

_ Felicity sends her a questioning look, unsure of what she means. How is any of this okay?  _

_ “This will all be over soon,” Nancy says.  _

_ Felicity choses not to answer. Instead her mind races with possibilities of how they are going to kill her now that Nancy has just confirmed that’s their plan. She can’t imagine they’ll want a bloody scene on what looks like new carpet. There were plenty of rooms with dingy cement floors for that.  _

_ Her mind flashes back to her grandparents. She’s not sure why it keeps doing that. Maybe because she’s never been able to relate to them until she herself had been imprisoned and persecuted for no reason. Maybe because she knows that none of this would have ever happened if her father had stayed out of her life… And the only reason her father is so zealous in his beliefs is because of what happened to his parents.  _

_ Either way, her mind flashes to her grandparents and the many stories she’s heard growing up about all the different ways that Jews were killed at Auschwitz. Felicity’s eyes go to the ceiling, looking at the vents and wondering if somebody is going to drop gas into the room. Is that why they brought her to this new place? God, she prays not. It’s not a quick death and it’s not painless.  _

_ Maybe her father will finally be proud of her. Killed like a “real Jew.” Dying a martyr. Hell, he’ll probably use her death to further his cause. To pull more people into his insane mission to avenge their people for something that happened over seventy years ago.  _

_ It makes her sick just thinking about it.  _

_ She’s only in this position because of him. Because her own father didn’t love her enough to place value on her life. It’s one thing to have her life threatened by the Slade Wilson’s of the world, but to know that her death came at the hands of her dad? It cuts deep.  _

_ She bites back another round of tears. There’s no point in crying now. What’s done is done. Her death is going to arrive whether she wants it to or not. The only thing she has control over is whether Oliver is brought down with her or not. _

_ She really needs to come up with a believable narrative to tell them when they ask. She needs to make sure that she leaves them no question of Oliver’s innocence so that when she bargains for his freedom, they don’t have anything to bring him down with later.  _

_ Felicity tries to remember all of the facts they’ve fed her about the attack. She needs to tell them everything they want to hear while also clearing Oliver’s name. Her mind is muddy though, and thinking clearly is hard.  _

_ She watches as Nancy carefully cleans all of the dirt, crime, dried blood, and god knows what off of her body. She spends a long time on her broken arm, doing her best not to press on it too hard or move it unnecessarily. Nancy assures her that once they are done, they’ll get her proper medical treatment.  _

_ She’s not sure why the woman is bothering with such lies. Perhaps they want her to think that she’s going to be treated so she doesn’t try to put up a fight. Perhaps they’ll bring her to the hospital wing for lethal injection. _

_ Lethal injection is authorised by the US Military as well as 33 other states for a reason. It’s easier for the executioners to absolve themselves of guilt when they have no idea who administered the lethal dose.  _

_ Nancy helps her into a clean pair of underwear, sweatpants, and a sweatshirt. It’s the warmest she’s felt in a long time. It’s the warmest she’ll ever feel again. Soon, her body will be cold.  _

_ She hopes they’ll allow her family to bury her.  _

_ Nancy spends another several minutes working through all of the tangles in her hair and pulls it into a ponytail. Finally, she moves to her face. She opens the black case and inside is an airbrush makeup kit. _

_ Felicity wants to laugh, it if wasn’t so terrifying. What’s the thing her mother used to say? You can’t put lipstick on a pig and expect people to believe it’s anything but a pig? They can’t honestly believe that they can airbrush all of her bruises away and pretend like they haven’t just spent weeks torturing this confession out of her. _

_ Panic starts to bubble in her again, but she forces it down. She takes a deep breath and focuses on what’s important. It doesn’t matter if they want to paint the walls white, lay carpet down, and clean her up. They need a confession out of her and they need the public to buy it. If she wants Oliver to go free, then she’ll give it to them. She’ll have to. It’s not about getting people to believe she’s innocent. It’s about getting them to believe Oliver is.  _

_ “I have a few demands to make,” Felicity says. “I won’t confess until they’re met.”  _

_ Nancy looks up at her with the oddest expression, it’s almost… pride?  _

_ “I’ll go get General Dawsett.” _

_ **** _

**2026**

“We know who he is now, I don’t understand why we aren’t just marching in there and taking him out,” Thea argues. 

“Because we’ve done that before and it didn’t work,” Oliver says. “You cut off one head and another one just grows back in it’s place. We need to make sure that we dismantle the entire group this time. There’s too much at stake if we don’t.” 

“Can’t we just torture the information out of Eichmann when we take him?” Thea says. 

“We aren’t torturing anybody,” Lance says. 

“Unless we have to,” Roy says, causing everyone to look at him in shock. “What? Suddenly we’re all against torture? Have we forgotten everything The Final Order has done?” 

“Okay,” Felicity finally says, throwing her hands up to silence them all. “Can we all just stop arguing for a few minutes and genuinely try and come up with a plan?” 

“They know we have Anna,” Oliver says. “They are going to assume she’s told us what she knows already and expect us.” 

Felicity sighs in frustration. Getting Eichmann’s name was supposed to give them direction, not make things more complicated. She pinches the bridge of her nose and tries to ward off the oncoming headache. 

“If we take Eichmann out now, there will be a power vacuum,” Digg says. “We can use that to our advantage. Hit them back while they are vulnerable.” 

“Are any of us really up for that after last night?” Roy asks. “Oliver still looks like he’s going to keel over.” 

“Thanks, Roy,” Oliver says, glaring at him.

“What? You got shot, dude. Accept your limits,” Roy says. 

Oliver looks like he’s going to put an arrow in Roy, so Felicity reaches over and puts her hand on his thigh, under the table. He turns to look at her, and she sends him a reassuring smile. Roy is right. They aren’t in any position to suit up right now. They’ve been beaten down and need to recover. If they try and take The Order out as Team Arrow right now, it’s not going to end well. 

The thought sparks an idea. It’s not fully formed yet, but it’s something, and she knows it’s the answer they’ve been looking for. 

“What if we don’t try and take him down with masks,” Felicity says, her mind already racing with the possibilities. 

“What do you mean?” Digg asks.

“Oliver already said it, they are going to expect Team Arrow,” Felicity says.

The Order knows who they are, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily ready to use it… Not if it means blowing their own precious covers. 

“What are you suggesting instead?” Thea asks. 

Felicity doesn’t quite know yet, the idea is still forming, but she starts talking anyway. She tends to do her best work while thinking outloud. 

“Draw him out,” she says. “Call his bluff. The Final Order wear masks for the same reason we do. They don’t want their identity known. I’m willing to bet that Star City’s most charitable isn’t willing to give up his cover yet…”

The longer she talks, the more her idea starts to solidify in her mind. This is going to work, she can feel it. 

“He won’t blow his cover until they have the fusion reactor, and they’ll know by now that they don’t. They’re going to be looking for an opportunity to get it out of us, so let’s give them one. The mayor’s charity ball you throw every year at Palmer Tech.”

“I’m not following,” Thea says.

“What does offering us up like pigs for slaughter do for us?” Roy asks. 

Right. Sometimes she forgets that her mind goes faster than she can explain and she skips several steps. 

“We need access to Eichmann’s computer if we want to get names. I can’t hack it remotely, I’ve tried,” Felicity explains. “We need to get into the Striker building so that I can get my hands on their servers.” 

“They know who we are, there’s not a chance in hell that they’ll let us past the front door,” Digg says. 

“They’ll have to,” Felicity says. “The Striker building is going to be where the mayor throws his annual charity ball now that Palmer Tech has had to close down for repairs.” 

“And why would Eichmann agree to that?” Lance asks. 

“Because Oliver and I are going to ask him,” Felicity says with a smile, knowing that she’s got this. This plan can work. It will work. 

“Susan Williams is shadowing Oliver this week and we know how she loves a good story,” she continues. “Eichmann won’t want to give her one. He’ll agree to the event because it puts us in his reach. He’ll agree to it being at his building because he won’t have a choice with Susan there.” 

“Okay, but you’re forgetting Susan Williams has a lifetime ban from City Hall,” Thea says. 

“Really?” Felicity says, giving Oliver a look. “Because I think that the mayor is pretty famous for giving people second chances and decided to lift that ban.” 

Oliver rolls his eyes, clearly annoyed. 

“Why does it have to be Susan?” Oliver asks. 

“Because she’s the only reporter in this city that doesn’t accept bribes,” Felicity says, patting his leg sympathetically. “And after her story on you being in the Bratva got proved wrong and nearly tanked her career, she’s not about to run a story about you being The Green Arrow. No matter what Eichmann tells her.” 

Felicity looks around the room, and everyone is nodding their head. They are agreeing to her plan. They think it can work, too. 

Felicity turns to look at Oliver again and he’s glaring at her. 

“You could look a little less happy about it,” Oliver says. 

****

Oliver walks down the hallway and stops in front of the bedroom where he finds Felicity and Donna sitting on the floor in front of the window. Ella is in Felicity’s lap while Grace tapes a drawing of a menorah to the window. 

He has every intention of entering the room to give them his gift, but he waits for a minute, enjoying watching his girls interact from a far. Seeing them all together, safe and sound, helps quiet his anxiety. 

“Why do we celebrate Hanukkah, Baby?” Donna asks. 

“Because the bad men tried to fight us, but we won,” Ella says. 

“And what else?” Felicity asks them. 

“Well, they tried to kill us. They tried to destroy our temples and say we couldn’t be Jewish anymore,” Grace explains. “But we believed in God, so we said no. We didn’t listen to the bad men who were trying to tell us to change and God protected us. We won.” 

It always makes Oliver smile to hear Grace explain their Jewish traditions. Oliver’s family had grown up Christian, but he never had any real connection to the church. It was a building they had to go to on Christmas Eve and Easter. Beyond that, he didn’t know much apart from the story of Christmas and the resurrection. 

Felicity, on the other hand, had always had such a strong faith and Oliver admired that. He wanted that for his children. So when it came time to discuss children and how they would be raised, it wasn’t a question for him. The girls celebrate Christmas and Easter with him, but ultimately, to the girls, it’s nothing more than an excuse to be with family and get presents. They’ve always been raised in the Jewish faith. 

He’s never regretted that decision. Though at times it makes him nervous to know that there are still many anti-semitic hate crimes in the world — especially now that The Final Order is back — he wouldn’t change a single decision. His daughters have grown into incredibly moral, caring people and he knows that a lot of that has to do with their faith and he loves that. It’s a lot more than he can say he ever grew up with. His morality didn’t come until the Gambit sank… 

“That’s right, Baby,” Donna says. “No matter how many people tell us it’s wrong to be Jewish, we just continue to fight and God always protects us. It’s important to remember that because people will always try and stop us from being who we are, but if you love God, he will protect you.”

“Will he really, Mommy?” Ella asks. 

“Yeah, of course he will,” Felicity says, placing a kiss on the top of her head. “He protected my grandma and grandpa when they were in Poland and Nazi soldiers wanted to hurt them…” 

“He protected me when I was a little girl in Russia,” Donna tells her. “And he protected your mom when she was taken. He’ll always be there to protect you.” 

“Like Daddy?” Ella asks, causing Oliver’s heart to swell. The fact that she still trusts him after the events of last night is more than he deserves. 

“Just like your daddy,” Felicity says. “Now what do you say we light these candles?” 

“Okay,” Ella says. “But not really, because it’s just paper.”

“We can pretend,” Donna says, pulling an orange crayon out of her pocket and handing it to Grace. 

Oliver takes that as his cue to stop lurking in the background and speak up. 

“Actually, I have a better idea,” he says, stepping into the room and holding up an actual menorah and a bag filled with candles and a lighter. “Not that I don’t love the one that you guys drew, but I think this might work a little bit better.” 

“You found a menorah!” Grace exclaims, as both girls come running at him to take the menorah out of his hands. 

“Mommy said we couldn’t have a real one this year!” Ella tells him, taking the menorah out of his hands and bringing it to the window sill.

“Yeah,” Felicity says, eyeing him suspiciously. “ _ Somebody _ said we couldn’t go home. So where did this come from?

“I called Lyla and got her to send us one,” Oliver says, shrugging his shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal. Like he didn’t just spend the entire afternoon trying to figure out a way to get them a menorah once he remembered that today was the first day of Hanukkah. 

He’d made a promise to himself after Felicity was kidnapped and Grace had missed the first two days of Hanukkah because he’d been so wrapped up in finding Felicity that he hadn’t looked at the calender, that they would never miss another Hanukkah again. 

“Well isn’t that husbandly,” Donna says, giving them a knowing look that causes Oliver to blush and Felicity to roll her eyes. 

“Mom, stop,” Felicity says. 

“I’ll just leave you guys to it then,” Oliver says awkwardly, stepping back towards the door. 

He doesn’t want to intrude on their moment. Hanukkah has never been one of the holidays they share. Felicity gets the girls for Hanukkah and every other Jewish holiday, and he gets them on Christmas and Easter. That’s the deal. 

“Wait,” Felicity says, causing him to pause in the doorway. “Did you want to stay and help us light the candles?” 

“Yeah!” Grace exclaims. “You can play the dreidel game with us!” 

“Are you sure?” Oliver asks, not wanting to overstep. Though they are trying again, they haven’t really discussed what all that means for them. He doesn’t want to assume anything. The last thing he wants is for them to move too fast and ruin this before they really get a chance. 

Felicity nods and holds out her hand for him. He smiles at her as tears fill his eyes, feeling incredibly blessed to be given the opportunity to share something so precious with his family again. It’s all he’s ever wanted. 

He takes hold of her hand and sits down beside her. Felicity snuggles into his side and Ella plops down into his lap. Instantly, his heart feels several pounds lighter. He can breathe again. 

“Felicity,” he starts to say, but can’t find the words to thank her for this, but he doesn’t have to. She’s looking at him and he can tell that she already knows. 

She leans over and gives him a quick kiss, before mouthing, ‘I love you.’ 

“You have to say the prayers with us,” Grace tells him as she pulls the candles out of the bag. 

“Daddy doesn’t know the prayers,” Ella says. “He’s never said them before.” 

“I remember them,” Oliver tells her, smiling at her confused face. “I used to say them with your sister, before you were born.” 

“Now you can say them with me!” Ella says. 

“Yeah.” He can’t force himself to say anything else. Not without crying. Felicity squeezes his hand and places her head on his shoulder, letting Donna talk Grace through the candle lighting process. 

“Don’t you want to help Grace?” Oliver asks, once he’s no longer in danger of crying. 

“Mommy says we have to take turns.” Ella sighs dramatically. “And I’d rather snuggle.” 

“Snuggling is the best,” Felicity says. “Your dad is a good snuggler.” 

“Yeah,” Ella agrees. “And I never get both Mommy and Daddy snuggles, so this is the best.” 

Oliver’s often wondered which of his daughters got the worst end of the stick when they divorced. Grace, who could remember what it was like to have two loving parents under the same roof, but was taunted with that memory. Or Ella, whose only reality had been the two of them separated. 

Comments like that, make him feel awful for putting his daughters through this. But at least now that they are back together, they can make up for lost time.

“Well lucky you, there are plenty of joint snuggles in your future,” Oliver tells her, kissing her cheek. 

They all say their prayers as Grace lights the candles with Donna’s help. The girls teach Oliver how to play several games and their family stays in that room, playing together, telling Oliver stories of Hanukkah's past, and spending quality time together for the first time in a long time.

It’s not that they never spend time together. They do. They make it a point to celebrate important events like birthdays and Thanksgivings together. But there’s always been an invisible barrier up on those days. Lines that weren’t to be crossed. Topics that weren’t to be discussed. Tonight is the first night they’ve all been together where Oliver doesn’t feel like he has to walk on eggshells to make sure that he doesn’t say anything too personal. 

It’s amazing.

So it’s no wonder that they stay like this, all together, long after the candles burn out. Long after Lance comes to get Donna and bring her back to the safehouse they are staying at with the Diggle family. Nobody wants the night to end. But eventually the girls fall asleep and it is time to call it a night. 

“I swear Ella gains 200 lbs when she’s sleeping,” Oliver complains as he puts her into bed. 

“You really shouldn’t be carrying her with your stitches,” Felicity tells him, but he ignores her. 

It’s not just his stitches that ache, it’s everything. The fight yesterday had taken everything in him and then some. There’s not a muscle in his body that isn’t sore, but that will never stop him from being a dad.

“I’m fine,” he says. 

Once the girls are tucked in, Felicity comes to sit on the end of the bed with him. 

“I feel like I owe you an apology,” Felicity says. 

“You don’t owe me anything,” Oliver says. “You never have.”

“I do,” Felicity says. “I realized that before, but after this evening… I know it even more. I’m sorry, Oliver.” 

He doesn’t say anything, because he quite frankly doesn’t know what to say to that. He knows she’s sorry. He’s always known that she was sorry. She didn’t leave him with the purpose of breaking his heart. She just didn’t know what to do or how to handle the grief she was feeling. However, she  _ had _ broken his heart when she left, and he doesn’t really want to talk about that with her. He doesn’t want to remember the pain of her leaving. It’s not something that he ever got over. 

“When I left, I took your family away from you and I broke your heart,” she says.

“You did,” he agrees. “But I seem to remember a time or two when it was me doing the breaking, so I can’t really be mad at you, can I?” 

“This wasn’t me trying to get even for that,” she tells him, shaking her head. 

“I know,” he reassures her, reaching out to pull her hand into his lap.

“When we first came back, I felt like the walls were closing in on me,” she says. “I was looking at you and all I could hear was that I didn’t deserve you after what I’d done. I’d look at you and I’d think about how I killed my own father for you—” 

“Abraham wasn’t your father,” he says sternly. “You have a father. Lance. So you can’t tell me that you don’t know what a real father looks like. Abraham was a sperm donor and deserved what he got for what he did to you—”

“To us,” she clarifies, but he ignores her in favor of making his point. 

“As far as I’m concerned, the world is a better place without him in it,” Oliver says.

There are tears in Felicity’s eyes and he wonders if he went too far. If his last comment will drive her away again, but she’s not moving away from him.

After several long moments looking at each other, she leans in and gives him a soft kiss before pulling back and resting her forehead against his.

“I don’t know how to move past this guilt I feel over killing him,” she says.

It makes him tense up. Her guilt over everything that happened had been the main thing separating them. If she can’t get past it, is she saying she doesn’t know if they’re going to be able to make it work?

“But I don’t want to push you away anymore,” she says, and it stops the worry. “Oliver… I can’t do this alone.”

“You’ve never been alone.” His heart shatters.

She nods, and he hopes she believes him.

“Tell me how to get past it,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. “Tell me how you got past it.”

“I didn’t,” he says. “Those months still haunt me.”

“But… the Gambit? Lian Yu?”

She’s not talking about his time in Syria or Israel. She’s talking about his 5 years of hell.  

“At some point you stopped pushing everyone away. You were able to let go of the island,” she says.

“I didn’t let go of it completely. I don’t know if I ever can. It’s still there with me. But you’re right, it’s not holding me back like it used to and some day, Syria... Israel... They aren’t going to hold you back anymore either.”

“How?”

Oliver takes his time before he answers, taking the time to really think his words over. He’s never stopped to analyze the exact moment that he let Lian Yu go. It wasn’t like there was a single event that came along and allowed him to move on. It was several hundred small moments each day. It was a journey.

“It was all the little things,” he says, trying to put his thoughts into words that she’ll understand. “It was letting you and Digg join the team. Then later, all the others that have come and gone over the years. It was Sara breaking up with me and telling me to find somebody who would harness my light. It was you telling me to keep fighting. It was that night in Nanda Parbat. It was traveling the world together. Getting a house in Ivy Town. You forgiving me for lying to you about William. Getting married and having kids. God, as much as you’ve changed my life and helped pull me out of the hell I’d been living under? Grace and Ella do that for me tenfold.”

Felicity smiles, like she knows what he’s talking about, and he knows she does. She doesn’t smile much anymore. At least, not her true smile. But when she’s with the girls? He knows that she’s truly happy. He wants to help give her that feeling again, too. He wants to help her see that the world isn’t going to get better by shutting it out and waiting for it to stop. It gets better by letting people in and letting the love of others fill in the holes in your heart.

Oliver smiles to himself, knowing that if he said that outloud she’d tease him about it. She always called him a hopeless romantic, but what she never realized is that he is only like that because of her. Because she’d come along and helped show him a better way. She’d helped him to see that the weight of the world is easier to carry when you share it with others. 

He wants to do the same for her. It’s all he’s ever wanted, but she’d never been ready for him to do so. He thinks she may be ready now and he couldn’t be happier. 

_ **** _

**_2022_ **

_ Oliver is sitting in his cell trying to overhear the guards outside, but getting nowhere. He knows that something big has happened, because there’s been more coming and going than usual, but he can’t figure out what. Seeing that they are some of the only prisoners in this place, he worries that whatever it is, involves Felicity and himself.  _

_ He’s not optimistic enough to hope for good news. If Lyla were going to order ARGUS to bust them out of this place, she’d have done it already. As far as he can tell, the fact that the US Military is holding two of the world’s most notorious terrorists at this base is not public knowledge. There’s no way that the information is out there and one of their friends hasn’t broken them out yet.  _

_ So instead, his mind immediately comes up with all of the horrible things that could have happened to get everyone worked up.  _

_ They’ve found new evidence in the case.  _

_ They’ve located Abraham.  _

_ He doesn’t want to think that all of this is because something’s happened to Felicity. He’s been living with the image of her lying on the cement floor screaming out for him, and it’s awful enough. He doesn’t need another mental picture to torture him. _

_ The sound of his cell door being unlocked pulls his focus and he immediately pops to his feet and prepares for a fight. If they are going to take him and torture him again, they won’t do so easily. The heavy door is pulled open and he’s met with seven guards with guns pointed at him. It’s four more men than they usually have on him. Which is unsettling. _

_ “I do believe congratulations are in order,” one of the soldiers tells him, wearing an overly fake smile. Oliver wants to punch the look right off of his face. And he would, if he could get away with it.  _

_ Instead, he doesn’t respond. He simply watches them all carefully, trying to figure out their play.  _

_ This isn’t the usual torture session, there are too many men for that and each is looking decidedly more murderous than usual.  _

_ “Well?” the soldier says, waving his gun at him like he’s supposed to know what they want from him. “Get moving.”  _

_ “Why should I?” he says with open defiance.  _

_ He may not be actively beating these men up anymore, but that doesn’t mean he’s been playing the perfect prisoner. The only reason he’s followed their rules this long is to protect Felicity. So if they are about to tell him that something’s happened to her, then all bets are off.  _

_ “Because your homicidal, psychotic wife just negotiated on your behalf,” he says. “It’s your lucky day, Mr. Mayor. You’re a free man.” _

_ Oliver’s blood runs cold at his words. There’s no way… _

_ Felicity wouldn’t.  _

_ She can’t. Not for him. He didn’t come all this way to rescue her only to leave her in this hell hole. No. She doesn’t save him. He saves her. That’s the plan. She can’t just change the play mid-quarter.  _

_ “Oh yeah,” the soldier says with a satisfied smirk. “Your wife is about to confess to the entire thing right now.”  _

_ “She can’t,” Oliver says. “She didn’t do anything.”  _

_ “And isn’t that the kicker? You actually believe she’s innocent in all of this, don’t you?” he says, shaking his head in pity. “I’d almost feel bad for you, Oliver. That is, if you hadn’t gone and broken my best friend’s femur, three buddies wrists, and my nose over that stupid bitch.”  _

_ Oliver growls at him, more than willing to break his nose again over that comment, but he has to remain calm. He can’t lose it until he understands what’s happening. He shakes his head and desperately tries to think of a plan to get them out of this. He can’t let Felicity confess to a crime that she didn’t commit. They’ll kill her. He won’t let her do this. Not for him. _

_ “She didn’t do this!” he shouts, but the men ignore him.  _

_ “Let’s move,” the soldier says, jamming him in the back with his gun to push him forward.  _

_ Oliver can do nothing but comply. There’s only so much he can do in his current state. Both his feet and hands are handcuffed, and his body is weak from hunger. While he’s sure he could still take out the guards, he can’t promise he’d be able to do so without getting shot. And getting himself shot isn’t going to help Felicity.  _

_ Oliver walks out of the cell with a gun pressed to his back and seven more aimed at his skull.  _

_ His heart thumps so hard in his chest that he’s convinced it may actually fall out of his chest. He rubs his thumbs along his fingers as he itches for his bow. He hates being put on the defensive. There’s no control in having to dodge bullets. He’s so much better at playing offensive. But this wasn’t something he could plan for. He couldn’t case the scene and have Felicity give him all the research about their opponent. He can only react to what they are handing him.  _

_ And what they are handing him is utter shit.  _

_ They’ve taken the strongest woman he’s ever known and broken her. They’ve tortured her to the point where she’s willing to confess to a crime she didn’t commit. It’s shit.  _

_ What’s worse, is she’s confessing because she knows she doesn't have another choice. She’s lost all faith in his ability to get them out of this mess, and he can’t blame her. By his calculation, he’s had two months to save her and he’s failed.  _

_ He’s frustrated with her for giving in and confessing. He’s angry at her for being so damn noble that she’s negotiated his freedom. He doesn’t understand how she can give up on her life when she has two daughters at home waiting for her? How dare she gamble her life away like it’s meaningless. It’s unacceptable.  _

_ Does she really believe he’ll just walk out of this prison, hop a flight home, and forget her. _

_ No.  _

_ No. That’s not how this is going to work.  _

_ “She’s lying,” Oliver says, bitterly.  _

_ “You don’t have to defend her anymore,” the soldier says. “We know she’s guilty. Don’t hang yourself with her rope.”  _

_ “She didn’t do this. I did!” Oliver argues, pulling at his chains, but they don’t budge. _

_ As angry as he is with Felicity right now, he’s even more furious with himself. Why hadn’t he been the one to confess? When he’d started to realize there was no way out of this, why did he keep hoping for a solution to magically appear that would set them both free? Why didn’t he do exactly what Felicity is doing now?  _

_ “I did this, not her!” he yells, but all the guards do is laugh and roll their eyes. _

_ They march Oliver down several hallways, passing numerous checkpoints. Nobody stops them. Nobody bats an eye at him screaming his confession. The entire base is apparently fine with letting him walk free and hanging Felicity for this crime.  _

_ His blood boils in anger as his stomach ties into knots. If he doesn’t figure something out fast, he’s never going to see Felicity again. That’s not an option he can live with. Losing Felicity has never been up for discussion.  _

_ “God damnit! Listen to me! She isn’t the killer! I am!” he screams. _

_ They reach the final set of doors, and once they are pushed open, Oliver is standing outside for the first time in two months. The direct sunlight burns his eyes as he struggles to adjust. A man steps forward, keys in hand, to unlock the chains around his hands and feet. This is it. They are actually going to let him go. _

_ Oliver has one last card to play. One confession he could make that would change their opinion and get them to listen to him. Get them to trade his life for Felicity’s. After all, if they need a killer, there’s a tattoo on his chest that proves he’s well versed in that art. If they need a terrorist, there’s a mask back in Star City that can show his frustration with the world.  _

_ He’s about to open his mouth to confess to being the Green Arrow when shots are fired at the gates. Oliver ducks for cover at the same time he spins around to look at where the shots are coming from. There are several black SUVs making their way onto the base and shooting any soldier that tries to stop them. _

_ One of the soldiers he didn’t recognize reaches out to grab his arm and pulls him down the stairs towards the black SUVs. Oliver takes a swing at him, but he dodges out of the way and says, “That’s our ride. I’m here to save you, Oliver.”  _

_ “I’m not leaving without Felicity,” he says, pulling out of the man’s grasp. With these men storming the base, it’s all the distraction he needs to rescue her.  _

_ The man reaches out to grab him again, shoving a needle into his neck as he does so. _

_ “We’ve got that covered,” he says. “You’ll see her when you wake up.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments give me life!


	20. ... Three Steps Back

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't write this story without the continued cheerleading, support, and all too often "Stop freaking out, it's fine," that I get from Em, Mel, and Megan. So I just want to take the time to say thank you to them. 
> 
> Also, if you're reading carefully, there are two little "Easter Eggs" in this one, I'm curious to see if anyone can catch them ;)

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

 

**_2022_ **

_ The first thing that Felicity notices is the steady beeping of a heart monitor. She’s heard the sound enough times over the years to know it by heart. The next thing she’s aware of his Oliver’s hand in her own. She knows it’s him because she can feel his telltale callouses thanks to years of archery.  _

_ He’s stressed and trying not to show it. He’s unnaturally still. His thumb isn’t tracing her finger like it usually does. It’s not surprising. If she’s in the hospital, of course he’s stressed out. There are too many things out of his control at hospitals and he doesn’t have good memories here. _

_ She squeezes his hand to let him know that it’s okay. That  _ she’s _ okay, even if she’s struggling to pry open her eyes thanks to whatever drugs they have her on.  _

_ “Felicity?” Oliver asks, his voice full of thinly veiled hope.  _

_ “Mmhmm,” is all she manages to get out.  _

_ “Felicity? Honey?” Oliver whispers, his lips brushing her ear. “Are you awake?”  _

_ “Mmm,” she hums again, unable to form words. Her throat is on fire and even breathing feels difficult. _

_ “Hey, hey,” he says. “You’re okay.”  _

_ Felicity finally pries her eyes open and is greeted with the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen. She’s not so delusional that she can’t remember sitting in a room preparing to give her confession. She’s not so out of it that she doesn’t remember the absolute fear of dying. The certainty that she would never see Oliver again. And yet, here they are.  _

_ She can’t help the tears that fall.  _

_ “Shh, it’s okay,” Oliver says, putting his hand on her cheek and wiping her tears. “It’s going to be okay.”  _

_ “Wh—” she tries to ask Oliver what happened, but her voice is gone. _

_ “Don’t try and talk,” he tells her. “You’re still healing.”  _

_ She sends him a questioning look, trying to convey what she can’t voice.  _

_ “We were rescued,” he tells her, thankfully understanding what she needs.  _

_ She breathes out a sigh of relief, but notices that he’s not doing the same. He’s tense and his eyes keep darting around the room like he’s waiting for an attack. She doesn’t understand. Aren’t they safe now?  _

_ She squeezes his hand and sends him another questioning look.  _

_ “I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. “I don’t know who rescued us, but I do know that hospital doors don’t usually have locks on them and the staff here won’t tell me anything.”  _

_ Felicity’s eyes travel to the door that looks innocent enough, except that it’s missing a handle and the hinges are on the inside, meaning they have no way of leaving. She looks around the room, trying to figure out if there’s another exit, but Oliver stops her. _

_ “I spent 4 hours when we first got here looking for a way out,” he says. “The only exit is through that door and it’s locked.”  _

_ It makes perfect sense if she thinks about it. Of course their nightmare isn’t over. Of course she’d tried to do one thing right in all of this mess and couldn’t even succeed at that. All she had wanted was to protect Oliver and help him get home to their girls. Yet, somehow, she’s failed at even that.  _

_ She’s about to try and ask Oliver who he thinks might have taken them, but at that moment there is a loud clicking sound coming from the door. The door swings open and a woman wearing scrubs steps into the room. Felicity instantly recognizes her. It’s Nancy, the woman who had been cleaning her up in preparation for her interrogation.  _

_ “Oh good, I’m glad to see you are up,” Nancy says, coming over to the bed with a warm smile that Felicity still doesn’t trust.  _

_ Oliver must not either because his grip on her hand tightens, like he’s prepared to yank Felicity out of Nancy’s reach at the first sign of trouble.  _

_ “You told me that you’d tell us where we are once she woke up,” Oliver says through gritted teeth. “She’s awake and I want answers.”  _

_ “You’ll get them,” Nancy says, her smile never wavering. “I’m going to check Felicity over to make sure her vitals are stable, first. Once we know that she is okay, we will inform him that you are ready to meet with him.”  _

_ “Meet with who?” Oliver asks, but Felicity has a sinking feeling that she already knows the answer to that question and it terrifies her.  _

_ “Abraham, of course,” Nancy says. “He’s been quite proud of how the two of you handled yourself during the trials. We all have.”  _

_ “You’ve got to fucking be kidding me,” Oliver says, his voice quiet, but holding more rage than Felicity thinks she’s ever heard before — and she’s heard him rage over a long list of world-ending events.  _

_ Within a second, Oliver has Nancy by the neck against the wall.  _

_ “Why are you doing this?” Oliver asks using his Arrow-voice.  _

_ “We are protecting our people,” Nancy says, her Stepford-like smile finally leaving her face.  _

_ She pushes at Oliver to try and get him off of her, but even with the muscle mass Oliver has lost during their time in captivity, he’s still an immovable force to contend with.  _

_ Felicity is glad to see that their time away hasn’t broken him like it has her. She’s terrified of what’s to come. She doesn’t know what her father wants with them, but expects the worst. What she does know, is that she isn’t strong enough to fight him off. Neither physically or mentally. She can’t keep doing this, but it doesn’t look like Oliver is having the same problem.  _

_ She shouldn’t be surprised. He’s always been the epitome of a hero. No matter how many times he’s gets knocked down, he always gets back up.  _

_ “Where are we?” Oliver demands, and if the cry that Nancy makes is any indication, he’s no longer just holding her in place, he’s actually hurting her.  _

_ Felicity can’t be bothered to care. These people — this group that her father has found himself a part of — have done nothing but bring her pain and misery for the last several weeks. They can speak of the common good, but it’s all lies.  _

_ These are the people that kidnapped her and hurt her mother. These are the people that left Oliver and her for dead in the middle of a desert. These are the people that bombed the Reichstag building and released a toxic gas on the Platz der Republik killing 88 people. These are the people that framed them for it.  _

_ The time for forgiveness has long past.  _

_ “Where are we?!” Oliver yells this time, slamming Nancy’s head into the wall.  _

_ “Israel,” Nancy cries, continuing to try and push Oliver away.  _

_ The door opens again and this time four men dressed in all black enter, pulling Oliver off of Nancy. He doesn’t take it well.  _

_ Fists start to fly. Felicity yanks the IV out of her arm and pulls herself out of bed in order to avoid getting caught in the crossfire. She moves just in time, as one of the men tumbles into her bed and knocks it over. The man tries to grab her, but Oliver hits him over the head with the heart rate monitor.  _

_ She’s seen Oliver fight numerous times to know that he can get them out of this situation, but she just doesn’t know what the point is. Her father is going to find them no matter what they do. He’s proven as much. No matter how hard they keep trying, they continue to end up exactly where he wants them to be. The entire situation is hopeless. Oliver can fight all he wants, but they won’t be free until her father wants them to be.  _

_ If he  _ ever _ wants them to be.  _

_ At this point, she’s fairly certain her father has no intention of ever letting them go. Felicity is going to die in here and if she can’t figure out a way to convince her father otherwise, so is Oliver.  _

_ Oliver grunts as a punch is landed to his stomach and the metal IV stand is slammed into his back. She winces in pain for him, knowing how badly it must have hurt. But Oliver doesn’t let it stop him. He reacts quickly and grabs onto the other end of the IV stand and jams it into one of the men’s stomachs, causing him to fall to the floor in agony.  _

_ “Let’s get you out of here,” Nancy says, attempting to grab her arm, but Felicity pushes her away with her one good arm. She only just now realizes that the other arm is in a cast. Just how long was she out for?  _

_ “It’s not safe for you here,” Nancy says again, but Felicity ignores her. She’s not about to leave Oliver’s side. She’s not letting anyone split them up again. She doesn’t trust her father to allow Oliver to live and it’s Felicity’s job to protect him. She may be powerless to help herself, but she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get him out of here.  _

_ The sound of a gunshot and a familiar hiss of pain has Felicity whipping her head around in horror.  _

_ “Oliver!” she screams, despite how it makes her throat cry out in agony. Oliver is gritting his teeth against the pain as he holds his thigh where he has just been shot.  _

_ She rushes to his side, not bothering to look at anyone or anything besides her husband.  _

_ “The next bullet goes into his skull.”  _

_ Felicity knows that voice. She’s known it since she was a little kid. It’s the voice that used to comfort her after a bad dream. The one that used to sing her to sleep. The one that talked her through how to build her first computer.  _

_ Felicity moves to stand between her father’s gun and Oliver, but Oliver won’t let her. He pulls her behind him and holds her in place.  _

_ “Go to hell,” Felicity tells her father, her voice sounding weak as she forces the words out despite the pain. Her father only smiles in response.  _

_ “You know, as much as I disapprove of this unholy union of yours, I find it fascinating,” Abraham says. “You two really have no regard for your own personal safety. You would literally take a bullet if it meant saving the other.”  _

_ “You come near us and I will kill you, you son of a bitch,” Oliver says, sounding strong.  _

_ Despite the fact that he’s taken a bullet to the leg, Felicity has no doubt in her mind that Oliver still has plenty of fight left in him. She’s seen him like this before. When he gets like this, it’s like his body becomes immune to pain. Felicity thinks that Oliver just might kill her father, if he could figure out a way to do it that wouldn’t end up with one of them hurt.  _

_ “Relax, Oliver,” Abraham says with a condescending tone. “You passed initiation. We’re on the same team now.”  _

_ “We’re not on your team,” Felicity argues, immediately falling into a coughing fit afterwards from the strain. Her body betraying her. _

_ “My dear, sweet Klara,” Abraham says. “You’re going to want to think long and hard about your next few words. You have a duty to God and to your people. Do not turn your back on us, you will live to regret it.”  _

_ Felicity hears the threat in his words as much as she sees the gun pointed at Oliver’s head. She will do what he says or Oliver will die.  _

_ “Was that your point to all of this?” she asks, forcing her lungs to work with her so that she can have this conversation. She will not sit by idly while her father threatens Oliver. “To figure out how to blackmail me?” _

_ “The point,” Abraham says, slamming a tan folder down on a tray loudly, causing her to flinch. “Was to remind you of your duty to your people and to show you that you aren’t this meek, vulnerable little girl consumed by capitalist greed. I took you away from your home because you have completely lost your way and I put you through those trials to help you find God again and with it, your strength. You are  _ not _ Felicity Queen, you are Klara Sokolski and you had best remember that for your own sake… and your husband’s.”  _

_ With that, he storms out of the room, his four henchmen and Nancy hot on his heels. The door slams behind him and a heavy metal lock clicks into place. Leaving them alone.  _

_ The second the door closes, Oliver stumbles to the floor clutching his thigh. Felicity reaches out with her good arm and pulls the sheet from the bed and presses it to his wound, trying to stop the bleeding.  _

_ “We’re going to get out of this,” Oliver tells her, reaching up to wipe tears from her eyes. “I won’t let him have you.”  _

_ She shakes her head, because it’s already too late. Game over. He won. He knows Felicity’s weakness now, just as he knows Felicity’s breaking point. They have Oliver and she will have to do whatever her father wants her to in order to make sure that Oliver makes it through this.  _

_ As Felicity does what she can to tend to the bleeding with the supplies she has, Oliver reaches up to grab the tan folder her father left them.  _

_ “What’s Noah?” he asks.  _

_ She meets his eyes to see what he’s talking about. He’s holding up the cover of the folder. There is a post it note with Hebrew writing on it, explaining that they have moved past the planning stage and into the implementation phase, whatever that is supposed to mean. There’s a giant label across the center that stands out for the simple reason that it’s not in Hebrew.  _

_ N.O.A.H.  _

_ She takes the folder from him, instructing him to keep pressure on his wound. Ignoring the fact that her hands are covered in his blood, she opens the folder to the first page. It’s a report, written in Hebrew. It details a recent interrogation of a married couple that worked for Kord Industries. They questioned the couple for details on their research on renewable energy. When the couple refused to give them what they wanted, they killed them.  _

_ Further pages show additional searches into renewable energy. A break in at Star Labs. Stolen plans from LexCorp. Hacked emails from Wayne Enterprises. The kidnapping of a R&D employee from Amertek.  _

_ It all paints one single, horrifying picture.  _

_ Her father is looking for information on how to build a fusion bomb.  _

_ Felicity turns to the last page. It’s a summary report. She quickly reads it feeling like she’s about to throw up. Not only is her father planning on building a fusion bomb in order to commit the worst terrorist attack in history, but he’s already picked his target.  _

_ Israel.  _

_ “What is it? What does it say?” Oliver asks, his voice full of concern. She knows that she can’t possibly be hiding her horror from him.  _

_ She hands him the folder and points the the subject line of the summary report. It’s the only thing written in English: _

_ Nuclear Option Advancing Humanity (N.O.A.H). _

****

**2026**

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Oliver asks, standing at the front door while he watches Felicity walk up to him, heels in her hand. 

“Yes,” she says, putting her hand on his shoulder to balance herself as she slips her shoes on. “We need this if we are going to bring down The Order.” 

Once she’s steady on her feet, she lets go of his shoulder but not before he catches a whiff of her. She smells like his body wash and it’s honestly one of the sexiest things he’s ever smelled. It’s also one of the worst things to ever happen to him because now he’s not going to be able to focus the rest of the day. 

In their rush to get to the safehouse, they hadn’t had time to stop by either of their apartments to get her things. They’d packed whatever they could grab from the bunker and took off. Which meant, the only body wash they had was his. Lance had to run to the store and buy them new clothes because nobody felt safe going back to their respective apartments. Oliver’s sure that The Order has them heavily monitored and likely setup with some kind of explosives. There will be no going home until this is over. 

“I can’t guarantee our safety,” he tells her. “As much as I don’t think that Eichmann would attack in such a public setting, that doesn’t mean he won’t have his men do his dirty work for him. These  _ are _ the same people that took City Hall hostage, so I don’t put anything past them.” 

“I’m not going to sit idly anymore. These people killed Team Arrow. They tried to kidnap our girls. They almost killed me. I’m not going to cower in fear anymore, so don’t ask me to sit this out,” she says with determination in her eyes.  

While Oliver would love nothing better than to have her stay here in the safety of this house, he knows he can’t ask that of her. He would never dream of it. Not when he hasn’t seen her like this in years. More than the fear he has over something happening to her in the field, he feels a sense of overwhelming pride. 

Arguing with him about going out in the field? Being determined to do the right thing no matter the consequences? It’s such an innately Felicity thing to do. 

“I love you,” he tells her simply because he can now. 

“I love you, too,” she says with a smile, placing her hands on his hips as she steps in close, tilting her head up in anticipation. Oliver can take a hint. He places his hands on her cheeks and leans down to give her a kiss. 

Her lips are soft and yielding against his. She opens her lips to deepen the kiss and he takes her lead. 

It’s not the first kiss they’ve shared, but it’s still so new to him that with each one he feels himself waking up from what feels like a very long slumber. She’s breathing life into him. For so long, he’s been going through the motions because that’s what he’s had to do. Everyone’s needed him to be strong, so he couldn’t break down. He’d almost forgotten what it feels like to have somebody at his side. 

She steps into him further and before he knows it, he’s leaning back against the door as she leaves open mouth kisses along his neck. He can feel himself start to twitch in his pants, and it won’t take but another few moments of this for him to reach a point where he won’t be able to stop. 

It’s been far too long since he’s been intimate with anyone. Even before the divorce, there had been so much going on between her pregnancy, then waiting for her to heal after the baby, followed by her kidnapping… Oliver has survived these last several years because he’d put all thoughts of his personal desire aside. He’s focused his attention on taking care of his daughters as well as the greater needs of the city. He’d ignored multiple offers from other women because they didn’t hold any appeal for him. But Felicity? 

Felicity holds a hell of a lot of appeal and now that his body has been reminded of what it’s been missing, it wants so badly it hurts. 

“I need you,” he tells her once she finally pulls away and is looking up at him with dark, hungry eyes. 

God, did he ever honestly believe she’d look at him like that again? That she’d feel anything strongly again after how badly she’d been broken down? The wall she’d built up around herself had protected her from completely self-destructing but it had also made her distant, cold, and void of anything resembling a strong emotion. 

She bites her lip and he can see her debating with herself. “I’m sure I can get my mom to watch the girls tonight?” 

Oliver shakes his head. The thought of sending Grace and Ella away after what happened fills him with panic, even if it’s only for a night. He can see that Felicity isn’t thrilled with that idea either. 

“No,” he says with a deep sigh. “We’ve waited this long, right? What’s a little bit longer?” 

She nods, but he can tell she feels guilty about it. He shouldn’t have said anything. She doesn’t need the reminder of how long they’ve been apart for. She’s beating herself up enough as it is. No matter what feelings of bitterness or abandonment she might have stirred up in him when she walked away from their marriage 5 years ago, she’s home now and that’s all that matters. They both need to let go of the past if they are going to move forward. 

“We should probably get going,” Felicity says. “Susan Williams will be looking for any reason to crucify you and being late will give her plenty of fodder.” 

“I still can't believe you talked me into allowing her to follow me for the day,” he says with a groan. 

“Just think of it as karma,” she says, grabbing her coat as they head out the door. “We’re using her just like she used you.” 

“Somehow I don’t think she’ll see it that way,” Oliver says. 

“Well then just remember that she can’t afford to write anything bad about you,” Felicity says. “This city doesn’t take kindly to people attacking their beloved mayor and she needs a job.” 

She has a point. Ever since they’d returned home after Felicity's kidnapping, the city had become oddly protective over the entire Queen family. While Oliver had assumed that being falsely accused of terrorism would have seriously damaged his standing in the polls, it had done the opposite. 

The city had believed the best in him and viewed him as a hero. A man who’d gone through hell and back in order to protect the woman he cared for. And even without the city knowing about his work as The Green Arrow, they’d somehow known that he would do the same thing for the city. And he had.

When Felicity broke up with him, he’d had to channel all of that energy elsewhere, and he’d channeled it into the city. Under his guidance, Star City had once again become a thriving metropolis. And while it wasn’t completely devoid of problems, they city trusted that whatever their beloved mayor couldn’t solve in the light of day, their trusted vigilantes would take care of it. 

So no. There wasn’t much that Susan Williams could do to hurt him anymore. She’d come at him with the worst and the city had still stood by his side. 

Oliver smiled at Felicity. He’s missed her advice probably more than anything else about her. Before they were lovers, they were friends. And when she’d walked away, he’d not only lost his wife, but he’s lost his confidant. The woman who always knew what to say to make him feel better. 

“I love you,” he says, not caring if it’s overkill. Not caring that she’s probably going to go crazy if he continues to say it. He’s had to keep those words to himself too many times, but no more. 

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity flinches as Oliver’s cries of pain echo throughout the cold, damp room. There’s a man jamming his finger right into the wound where Oliver was shot a few days ago, and his screaming makes her feel like she’s going to vomit. Oliver isn’t one to show his pain, so she knows he has to be really hurting if he’s being so vocal about it.  _

_ She’s crying as she pulls on the chains around her chest that are keeping her in her chair. She needs to get to him. She needs to pull that man away from Oliver. She has to protect him.  _

_ “Stop it!” she begs, unable to take this. She can’t sit here and watch as they torture Oliver day in and day out. It’s too much.  _

_ She’d thought nothing could be worse than the torture she’d experienced at the military prison, but she’d been wrong. Watching Oliver go through the pain instead of her —  _ because _ of her — it’s a million times worse.  _

_ “Get to work!” another man screams at her, forcibly turning her head so that she’s looking at the research they’ve placed in front of her. It’s all the information they’ve compiled on fusion energy. They expect her to build their bomb for them.  _

_ It doesn’t make any sense. She’s not an engineer and her father  _ knows _ that.  _

_ “I already told you, I’m a hacker. I work with computers. I can’t do this,” she says.  _

_ Her words are taken as a refusal and Oliver let’s out a pained hiss. She turns to see them stabbing him in the stomach with a hot poker.  _

_ “Oh god, please stop. Please,” she cries. “You’re going to kill him.”  _

_ Oliver pulls down hard on the chains that have him bound to the ceiling, but they don’t budge. He tries to pull his body away from the poker, but there’s only so much he can do when his bare feet are just barely brushing against the floor.  _

_ “Oliver, I’m sorry,” she sobs, feeling overwhelming guilt that she can’t make them stop. That she doesn’t know how to give them what they want.  _

_ He looks up at her with tears in his eyes and shakes his head.  _

_ “This isn’t on you, Felicity,” he says through gritted teeth and barely controlled breathing. “This is on them. Don’t you dare give them a damn thing.”  _

_ Oliver’s words earn him a hard kick to the groin.  _

_ “Stop!” she screams at the man. “Stop hurting him. I’ll do anything.”  _

_ “Build us that bomb,” the man tells her.  _

_ She shakes her head. “I don’t know how.”  _

_ “Well that’s what all this fancy research is for,” the man next to her says, before grabbing her hair and yanking her head down towards the table. The chains are pulling tightly on her chest and it’s difficult to breathe, but she doesn’t complain. She knows between the two of them, Oliver has it worse.  _

_ “Let go of her,” Oliver growls.  _

_ His words only cause the man standing next to her to run his hands over her body while staring Oliver down. Felicity whimpers as his hands start to pull up on her sweatshirt. Oliver begins to thrash around violently trying to break free of his chains.  _

_ “That’s enough, Ian. She is the boss's daughter, after all,” the man standing next to Oliver says, and Ian drops his hands before they can pull her shirt off.  _

_ “When I get out of this, I’m going to kill you,” Oliver tells Ian, fixing him with a cold glare that has terrified many of Star City’s worst criminals, but Ian barely flinches.  _

_ “Your only hope of making it out of this alive is if your stupid slut remembers her place and does as she’s told,” Ian says.  _

_ Oliver pulls up on the chains above him and kicks out at his guard faster than she can blink, sending him tumbling to the ground. He then begins climbing up the chain, as if he’s going to try and break it off of the pipe it’s attached to, but before he can get anywhere the hot poker is jammed into his back. He lets go of the chain with a yell. He falls to the floor, only to be caught by the chain around his wrists and Felicity hears his groan as his shoulder most likely pops out of place.  _

_ “Oliver!” she cries out, leaning forward with all of her might to try and break out of her own chains, but all she manages to do is tip her chair over, landing on the concrete floor with a painful thud.  _

_ “Don’t touch me,” she spits out as Ian rights her chair up and drags her to the other side of the table so she’s farther away from Oliver.  _

_ “We’ll be back in an hour princess,” the man next to Oliver says. “If you don’t have results for us, then we’ll move onto waterboarding.”  _

_ “The technology you want doesn’t exist yet!” she screams at them, infuriated, then immediately starts coughing. Her lungs still aren’t fully healed from the pneumonia she caught in the military prison.  _

_ “Well then you better get working,” Ian says, placing a kiss on the top of her head that has her shuddering and Oliver screaming out in protest, pulling as hard as he can on his chains.  _

_ Both men leave them with a slam of the door that has her flinching.  _

_ The second the door closes, Oliver starts talking.  _

_ “Are you okay?” he asks.  _

_ “Me?” she says, laughing in surprise. “You’re the one they are torturing. Oh god. I’m so sorry, Oliver. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do. I can’t give them what they want. And that’s not even me being brave. I don’t know how to give them what they want. I’m not smart enough.”  _

_ Her eyes fall to the table in front of her as she starts to cry, feeling so incredibly useless.  _

_ She’s worthless.  _

_ Oliver would have been better off if she had died in that prison cell. At least then, he could have made it out alive. The only reason Oliver is here now is to be used as a pawn against her.  _

_ “Felicity, look at me,” Oliver says, softly.  _

_ She shakes her head, she can’t meet his eyes. She doesn't deserve his comfort right now. Not when she’s the reason he is battered and bruised.  _

_ “Felicity, please,” he begs, and she can’t deny him that. She lifts her head up to look at him and he gives her a sad smile. “I’m okay,” he says. “I can take it. I promise you, I’ve been through worse than this.” _

_ “That doesn’t make me feel better,” she cries. “I would give them anything to make them stop, but I don’t know how to give them this.”  _

_ “You are not going to give them a damn thing,” Oliver says. “Whatever they throw at me, I’ll be fine.”  _

_ “What if they kill you?” Felicity says, feeling like she can’t breathe suddenly at the thought of watching Oliver die right before her eyes.  _

_ “This isn’t your fault,” he says. She notices that he doesn’t promise her that he’s not going to die.  _

_ “It’s entirely my fault,” she says as she starts to sob. She can see him struggling with his restraints, trying to reach her, to comfort her, but he can’t break free.  _

_ They are well and truly stuck here.  _

****

**2026**

Felicity tries to control her breathing as they walk up the steps of the Striker building. The saying, “walking into the lion’s den,” has never felt more appropriate than it does now. They are literally walking into a building owned by the leader of The Final Order. They are about to meet with the man who is responsible for turning this entire city on it’s head; For killing 5 of it’s heroes; For attacking Palmer Tech in an attempt to get to her; For attempting to murder Oliver; For trying to kidnap her children; And that’s just talking about this time around. 

She doesn’t even like to think about the complete horror they created the first time The Final Order gained power in Star City. 

Oliver reaches over and takes her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze that helps her breathe again. No matter what is about to happen, she’s got Oliver at her side and despite her firsthand knowledge that he can’t always protect her from everything, she still feels safe in his presence.

Oliver doesn’t drop her hand until they reach the door to the hotel and she is sure that the gesture hasn’t gone unnoticed by Susan Williams. If Felicity wasn’t so worried about making it out of this meeting with Eichmann alive, she would be concerned that they’ve just given Susan the story of a decade that will allow her back into the good graces of Star City’s citizens. But she has more important things to worry about than what Susan decides to write about them in her paper. 

When they enter the lobby, they are directed to the first floor restaurant where they are told Eichmann is waiting for them. Felicity would laugh at how meeting in an italian restaurant feels incredibly  _ Godfather _ to her, but there isn’t anything funny about what they are doing. 

She glances over at Oliver, who is wearing what she calls his ‘high society’ smile. The one that’s clearly fake to her, but to the naked eye looks genuine and relaxed. It’s the smile that was cultivated after years of growing up in the Queen household. The one he uses when he’s uncomfortable but can’t afford to let anyone else see. 

She pastes a similar smile on her face, having perfected her own ‘high society’ smile after her kidnapping and one too many comments on her ‘bravery’ and ‘strength.’ 

They walk through the empty bar until they reach the dining room where Eichmann has set up a table for them to meet at. The restaurant won’t open for dinner for another few hours, so apart from Susan’s presence as well as personal security for both men, they are alone. 

It’s both good and bad. There aren’t enough witnesses to make murdering either of them impossible, but there also aren’t as many men for Oliver to take down if this thing goes sideways. She can see Oliver casually canvassing the area under the guise of looking at the various celebrity pictures lining the walls. 

“Mayor Queen, I must admit, I was surprised when my assistant told me that you were requesting a meeting,” Eichmann says with a warm, kind smile, playing his part to a T.

  
Felicity has to give him credit, he looks every bit the philanthropic businessman with a heart of gold that he pretends to be. In fact, if she didn’t know better, she would have fallen for his act. Who wouldn’t trust in a man who’s donated more money to charities than any other person in this city and built not only a free health clinic, but also a homeless shelter?

But she, more than most, knows how deceiving looks can be. After all, for the entire first year that Oliver operated as the Hood, he had everyone convinced that he was nothing more than a drunken, playboy who’d learned no humility in his time as a castaway. 

“I’m really grateful that you were able to make the time to meet with us,” Oliver says, reaching out to shake Eichmann’s hand. 

Both men grip each other tighter than absolutely necessary, giving her no doubt that Eichmann does indeed know exactly who Oliver is. However, the display is so minute that she’s positive Susan doesn’t catch it. 

“I’ve brought Felicity Smoak with me, the CEO of Palmer Technologies, as well as Susan Williams from SCNN. Susan is shadowing me for a piece she’s writing, I hope you don’t mind?” Oliver says, and though it isn’t overt, Eichmann certainly hears it for what it is: a warning. 

“Of course, it’s nice to see you again Susan. And Miss Smoak, we haven’t had the opportunity to meet yet,” Eichmann says, taking her hand to leave a kiss on the top of it. 

She has to resist the urge to pull her hand back and immediately start wiping the traces of his hateful lips from her. Even though she knows that he’s an anti-semitic asshole who deserves to be put down, this is a very intricate game of chess and one wrong move could see them losing everything. 

“It’s my pleasure,” Felicity lies right through her teeth. 

“Speaking of, to what do I owe the pleasure of such distinguished company this afternoon?” Eichmann asks. 

Felicity has to close her eyes in order to avoid rolling them. God, he’s really playing it up. It makes her sick. 

“We are here to talk to you about my annual charity ball, are you familiar with it?” Oliver asks. 

“I am,” he says. “Palmer Technologies hosts the event. I’m assuming that’s why Miss Smoak is here?” 

Oliver nods and Felicity takes that as her cue to speak. 

“Well you’ve probably seen the news that Palmer Tech had a bit of a mishap yesterday,” she says, fighting back her desire to add ‘that you caused!’ Eichmann must at least suspect that they’ve seen past his mask, but he can’t know for sure and she won’t tip their hand. 

“Unfortunately Palmer Tech won’t be open to the public for some time as they work on repairing the damage done,” Oliver steps in to finish for her, sensing how hard it is for her to speak without screaming at the man. 

“So you’ve come to me?” Eichmann says. Felicity can’t tell if the surprise in his voice is genuine or if it’s just for show. 

“With everything you’ve done for this city, I thought you’d be a sympathetic ear and a willing hand?” Oliver says, raising his eyebrow in question. 

Felicity can’t help but tense up in anger at Oliver’s words. Calling the man behind the worst Anti-Semitic group since the Nazis sympathetic legitimately pains her. 

“What do you need?” Eichmann asks. 

‘You to go jump off of the 90 story roof of this hotel?’ Felicity thinks, before Oliver catches her eye and silently tells her to try harder. Obviously she’s not keeping the extreme hatred off of her face as much as much as she’d thought. 

“We need a space to host the event,” Felicity says, burying all of her annoyance down deep and putting on her business mask — the one she wears whenever she’s working with the board or negotiating a particularly challenging contract. It’s the mask that allows her to continue on being professional while inside she just wants to scream in frustration. 

“Palmer Tech is still willing to front the money for the event, but we can no longer provide the venue,” she says. 

“You want to have the event here?” he asks, eyeing both of them carefully, clearly trying to figure out their play. 

“We do,” Oliver says. 

There are several tense seconds where she’s sure that he’s going to kick them out and refuse to help. Which would be well and fine, except that their entire plan revolves around being able to gain access to this building and with it, Eichmann’s servers. After all, this isn’t even about the charity ball at all. It’s about getting the intel they need to stop this maniac once and for all and bring his entire organization down with him. 

Eichmann looks back to one of his bodyguards who is shaking his head and she’s positive that he’s going to say no. In fact, she’s already starting to map out the building in her mind in order to come up with an appropriate plan to break in later on tonight. 

And then Susan Williams, bless her cold, dead heart, goes and does something genius. She coughs, reminding Eichmann of her presence. And she can see the moment that he realizes he’s been backed into a corner with no escape route. If he denies the offer, it will be front page news. His carefully cultivated persona will be destroyed and the public will see him for what he is. 

His shoulders start to sag and his smile falls ever so slightly. 

“Consider it yours, Mr. Mayor,” Eichmann says with such carefree effort, like he hadn’t a single doubt in his mind that this was the right plan. 

Damn, he’s good, she thinks to herself. If she hadn’t gotten the email from Anna and run the information herself, she never would believe him capable of such evil. 

“I was hoping that you would agree, thank you,” Oliver says. “But before you commit yourself, you should know that I have some security concerns.” 

“Oh?” Eichmann raises his eyebrow, but he hardly looks surprised.

“As you can imagine, our city is still very sensitive when it comes to gatherings of community leaders,” Oliver says. “Even with crime rates down in recent years, everyone can still remember the days where it seemed like every time anyone got together there was an attack. In order to assure my guests safety, I will require that my security team have complete control over the building.” 

Eichmann drops his smile and openly glares at them both. He’s obviously made the jump from a possibility to a certainty that they know the truth about him, except he can’t do anything. Not with Susan still in the room. 

Not unless he decides to kill them all. 

Which honestly, is certainly a fear she has. 

She grips the arms of her chair in anticipation of attack. She can feel phantom chains wrapping around her wrists and her arm twinges in pain from wound that’s long since healed. She breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth as she watches Eichmann’s security detail carefully for any sign that they are reaching for their guns. 

The anxiety starts to grow as she can feel her heartbeat increase. The blood in her veins pumps harder, urging her to move. To run fast and far. 

But she doesn’t give in to the panic. 

She counts to ten, focuses on her breathing, and chooses to trust that Oliver knows what he’s doing and will get them out of this. 

“Now that will prove difficult,” Eichmann says. 

“I thought that would be where we might lose you,” Oliver says, still wearing his polite smile. 

He’s not about to show his hand, even if Eichmann has already guessed it. It’s why Oliver had always beat her at chess every time they’d ever played. Oliver can out-strategize nearly anyone given enough time and she can feel his confidence that he’ll be able to beat Eichmann. At least for this first round. Pulling off what they have planned to get access to his servers? That will be a different issue entirely. 

“As you can understand, I’m sure, we have a lot of high profile guests in our hotel. To turn over our security to your team, as competent as I’m sure they are, is a huge liability issue on our end.” 

Yeah, she bets it is. 

“And while I can completely understand that,” Oliver says. “It is a non-negotiable on our end.” 

Felicity can see the wheels turning in Eichmann as he tries to figure out what moves are available to him that won’t give up his king. 

He can deny them, but then he’ll have to face the newspapers and the last thing he wants is for the press to start digging into his affairs, as they’ll surely come across the truth eventually. 

He can kill them all, but it’s the middle of the day and there’s no guarantee that he’d be able to take Oliver. 

He can give in, but then he’s leaving himself vulnerable to their attack. 

They really do have him at a checkmate. 

“Our security teams will work together,” Eichmann finally says. 

“Of course,” Oliver smiles, just the barest hint of smug on his face. “My men will welcome the additional hands. But just so we are clear, my team is on point. They call the shots. Your men are there to offer up their expertise and follow orders.” 

Eichmann smiles, though it looks like he’s just swallowed particularly nasty cough syrup. Which really works as a metaphor she thinks, because she’s more than happy to give him a dose of his own medicine. She wants to steal everything from him. She wants him to feel the same fear that they’ve been living with for years. 

She is going to make Joseph Eichmann pay for his sins, if it’s the last thing she does. 

****

**_2022_ **

_ Hours later, after Oliver finally passed out from the pain and blood loss, he’s dragged away for medical attention. She’s brought back to the prison cell they are keeping her in and left with a promise that they’ll start fresh tomorrow with both of them and expect her to have a plan.  _

_ If she doesn’t do what they want, they’ll continue to hurt Oliver. But even if she were okay with killing millions of people with a fusion bomb, she couldn’t build it even if she wanted to. It’s impossible.  _

_ She doesn’t know what to do.  _

_ She wrings her hands as she continues to wait for news on Oliver’s condition. He had looked really bad when they’d dragged him out of the room. He was pale, his lips were blue, and he was barely breathing. _

_ The only thing keeping her even remotely sane is that they told her they had no intention of killing Oliver just yet. They intend to make her watch as he nearly dies a hundred times over until she finishes the bomb. No amount of talking on her part can convince them that it’s not possible. They don’t believe her when she says that she isn’t capable of doing what they are asking her to do. _

_ She’s at a loss and she’s terrified. She’s not sure how much torture Oliver’s body will be able to endure before giving out. While his mind is strong, his body isn’t as young as it used to be. It doesn’t heal as fast anymore. What if, despite their intentions, this actually kills him? _

_ She’s terrified that he may already be dead, but tries to convince herself that they would tell her if he were. They would use it as a reason to gloat. _

_ Then again, if he did die, they would have nothing to hold over her. What if he’s already gone, but they are letting her believe that he’s just healing in the hospital wing? _

_ She closes her eyes and begins whispering a prayer to god for Oliver. _

_ “So you do still pray,” her father says, startling her. “I’d wondered about that. Tell me, do you think that God listens to insolent, wayward children who refuse to answer his call?” _

_ “I like to think that God is forgiving,” she tells him. “And you should, too. Because this isn’t what he would want.” _

_ “Really? The same God that flooded the world when man refused to change their evil ways?” he says with the most condescending smirk. _

_ “In that same story he said that murder was to be punished by death,” Felicity argues, trying to make him see just how wrong he is, despite how pointless the endeavor may be. _

_ “Which is why we will all go down with this bomb,” he says, without a hint of fear or remorse. He’s genuinely prepared to die for his cause. “I will not let our people continue to suffer at the hands of these Godless monsters any longer.” _

_ “You’re targeting Israel. You’re targeting our own people,” she says, trying to make him see the light. “You’re targeting our history. Our home. That’s the land God promised us and you want to destroy it.” _

_ “Extreme times call for extreme measures,” he says coldly. “Somebody has to squash the Palestinians like the cockroaches they are and stop the evil capitalists from over taking our home. For too long we’ve sat by while they build their mosques. Too long we’ve accepted foreign aid, knowing that foreign influence will only drive our children to sin. I mean look at you, Klara. Do you even know what it is to fear God? To understand his great power?” _

_ “I understand what it is to love God. To have love in my heart. To forgive. To treat others with respect in the hopes that they will in turn treat me with respect. I understand that the most powerful symbols of change come not from acts of war, but acts of love. Civil disobedience. Following God’s word,” she cries. “There is another way to fight this.”   _

_ “I should have expected this from you.  _ Overwatch _.”  _

_ Felicity glares at him.  _

_ “That’s what he calls you, right?” her dad says with a condescending look. “When you’re out there fighting for what’s right with just a bow and arrow. When your husband tries to make a difference as he mayor.”  _

_ He laughs and she wants to punch his satisfied smirk right off of his face.  _

_ “He has you believing that love and understanding will solve the world’s problems. That forgiveness will make things better. That if you can just get everyone to stand united, you’ll be okay. Well I have news for you Klara… Love didn’t protect us when Hitler came. Forgiveness didn’t stop the Neo-Nazis from enacting hate crimes against our people. The Palestinians have taken over our home and have killed us. They will destroy us if we give them a chance.” _

_ “Have you ever considered that the Palestinians only continue to shoot at us because we shoot at them? Why is the only option towards peace more violence?” she asks. _

_ “You are a naive child! It’s because violence is the only way to make them see!” he yells. _

_ “So you’re just going to wipe out all life in Israel. You’re willing to kill all the good in order to destroy the bad,” she says, shaking her head in horror. How could she possibly be related to this man? How could this be the same man that used to sing her to sleep at night as a child? _

_ “Ashes to ashes, it all falls down,” he says through angry, gritted teeth.  _

_ “Yes, and that’s the end of the song,” she tells him. “There isn’t a second part after that where everyone magically comes back to life and things are happy again. It’s the end. Everyone dies.” _

_ “Then everyone will die and the world can start over,” he says. “It’s what God would want.” _

_ “You’re insane.” _

_ “I have conviction,” he says. “It’s something you could learn.” _

_ “There’s a difference between conviction and insanity,” she tells him.  _

_ “I think you and I both know that’s only a matter of perspective,” he says. “After all, many would call your husband a monster rather than a hero.”  _

_ “Nobody is going to call you a hero for doing this,” she tells him.  _

_ “Really, I thought that you would be able to understand what sometimes one has to go outside of the law in order to seek justice,” he tells her. “I guess I was wrong. You can be part of this revolution or you can continue to watch your husband be tortured… either way, you are building us this bomb.”  _

_ “I have a degree in cyber security and computer sciences, you know that I can’t do what you’re asking me to do,” she says.  _

_ “You and I both know that you are responsible for all of those fancy trick arrows that Oliver uses just like we both know that you built The Atom suit. You’re more than capable of building this bomb,” he says.  _

_ “I didn’t build those trick arrows nor did I build the Atom suit,” she tells him. _

_ “Don’t lie to me!” he yells, pounding his hands angrily on the bars, causing the entire cell to rattle.  _

_ “It’s not a lie,” she tells him, shaking her head. “I designed the code, I had nothing to do with the engineering. That was all my friends.”  _

_ He’s clearly surprised by that news. He’d honestly thought she was the brainchild behind all of the fancy toys Oliver and Ray use. Sure, she may have thought of many of the ideas, but all of the actual engineering came from Ray or Cisco.  _

_ “Then you’re even weaker than I thought,” he tells her, spitting on her. “Relying on men to do your work for you. You wasted away that fancy education on what? You have a genius IQ, Klara. You were supposed to amount to something.”  _

_ “I did amount to something,” she says, trying to remain strong, but it’s hard to remain strong when your father is voicing his disappointment in you and it’s confirming literally every negative thought you’d ever had about why he left.  _

_ “Well,” he scoffs. “You’re smart enough to do this and God will light your way. If you can’t hear him, it’s because you’ve decided to live a life of sin and he’s turned his back on you. Repent. Repent and do it soon, because there is only so much your precious Oliver will be able to endure.”  _

_ He turns to walk out and leave her, but she calls out for him to stop. _

_ “Please. I need to know that he’s okay,” she tells him. _

_ He turns back around to look at her with a satisfied smile, like she’s just played right into his hand. Again. It’s frustrating how well he seems to know her when she doesn’t understand a damn thing about him. _

_ “I could kill him, you know,” he says. “Easily. Then you’d be free to marry a nice Jewish man. Somebody that would break you until you learned your lesson. A strong man that would put the fear of God into you until you figured out your place.” _

_ “You kill Oliver and you lose your only leverage,” she says, doing her best to make sure he can’t hear how shaky she is. How terrified she is that he’ll do just that. “I won’t do a damn thing for you once he’s gone.” _

_ “You have other family, Klara,” he tells her. “Oliver isn’t the only person we can use to blackmail you. The only reason we picked him over anyone else is that it plays well for the headlines when this is all over. But rest assured, we have a Plan B should we need to terminate him and you won’t like it.” _

_ Felicity feels her blood turn to ice. _

_ There’s no way. He’s a monster, but he’s not capable of that kind of evil… _

_ “Harper Grace and Anabella Jade are being watched. With a single phone call, I can have their caretakers murdered and have them brought here within 15 hours.” _

_ “You wouldn’t dare,” she says, standing up on her feet to come to the cells bars, fixing him with a glare of her own. _

_ “I think we’ve already established that there isn’t anything I’m unwilling to do to see my mission completed.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments and continued support mean the world to me and keep me going. So thank you guys!


	21. A Simple Act of Kindness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks as always goes out to my girls Emma and Megan for their continued help with this!

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

 

**2026**

Felicity walks down the stairs in her form fitting, floor length ball gown, looking like the sun. Oliver finds his breath catching in his throat at the sight. She’s stunning. She’s always been stunning of course, but over the last several years, he’s watched her dim before him. She’s been a poor imitation of her former self. Tonight though? Tonight she’s glowing. She’s smiling down at him and he can feel himself melting in her presence.

“You look beautiful,” Oliver says quietly, still waiting for the moment when he wakes up and realizes this has all been one prolonged dream. But it’s been a week since the attack on Palmer Tech and he’s still here.  _ She’s _ still here.

Felicity smiles at him in thanks, but it doesn’t entirely cover up her nerves.

“Are you okay?” he asks her, watching as she tugs on her dress, clearly self-conscious.

“Are you sure that I look okay?”

Oliver doesn’t need to look at her again to know his answer, but he remembers being married enough to know that when asked that question, he had to at least pretend to think about his response. He gives her a once over, taking in how the dress hugs her in all the right places. He can’t help but lick his lips. Even after two kids, she’s still got an amazing body. But that’s not what she wants to hear right now.

“You look stunning,” he says, reaching out to grab her hands so that they will stop fidgeting with her dress. He pulls her down the last step so that she’s standing in front of him. “Absolute perfection.”

He brings her hands around him and settles them on his waist before letting go to reach up and place his hands on either side of her face. She comes to him, standing up on her toes in order to press her lips to his. He moves to deepen the kiss, but she pulls away from him, still biting her lips nervously.

“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on up here,” he says, lightly tapping her forehead.

She hesitates for a second, before letting out a deep sigh.

“It’s just that, this is the first time that we’ll be going out in public since Susan wrote that article about us,” she says. “There’s going to be a lot of press there taking pictures and asking questions.”

“Let them,” he says, causing her to look at him in surprise.

“You’re not nervous about that?” she asks, looking at him like he’s grown a third eye. “You hate the press.”

“I do,” he agrees. “But I’m not embarrassed to be seen with the most beautiful woman in the world and I’m not going to be shy about the fact that she’s agreed to take me back.”

Felicity rolls her eyes, but the comment makes her smile.

“Careful, you’re letting your bias show,” she says.

“Hardly.” Oliver shakes his head and pulls her in for another kiss. “If we didn’t have to leave right now, I’d drag you up to the bedroom and make sure you knew just how much I mean every word.”

“If we can get that intel tonight, we could be taking The Order out as early as tomorrow…” 

“Right,” he says, not sure where she’s going with this. 

“Taking The Order out means going back home…” she says, running a finger up and down his chest and causing his heart to beat faster as pure want fills his veins. “Back to a loft where the girls have their own bedrooms…” 

“If you’re trying to motivate me, it’s working,” he says with a smile. 

Not that he doesn’t have plenty of other, completely valid reasons for wanting to take out The Final Order as soon as possible, mainly his family’s safety. But he has to admit, finally having some privacy with Felicity is something he desperately desires. He’s anxious to see if they still work together in the same way. If she’ll still melt at the same things or if he’ll have the opportunity of discovering her anew.

He just wants the opportunity to join together as one. It’s the final missing piece for him. The one last thing he’ll need to truly feel like he’s home. 

“Oh my god!” Ella yells in her overdramatic fashion, as she runs into the room. She darts around his legs before leaning against him so that she can look up at Felicity. “Mommy, your dress is so pretty!” 

“Thank you, Sweetheart,” Felicity says, pulling Ella in for a hug. “Where is your sister?” 

“She’s upstairs playing with Daddy’s bow,” she says with a shrug, not seeming to notice how her words cause Oliver to freeze in fear. 

“She’s doing what?” Felicity asks, looking equally horrified. 

Maybe they’d both heard her wrong. 

“She’s upstairs playing with Daddy’s bow,” Ella repeats herself. 

Her words spurn him into action. Mental images of Grace lying in a pool of blood with an arrow through the heart have him taking the stairs two at a time until he reaches their bedroom. He holds his breath as he throws the door open, positive that he’s about to walk into a horrific scene. Seeing that Grace is perfectly okay and simply sitting on the bed with the bow in her hand causes him to breathe a sigh of relief, but does nothing to calm his growing anger.

“What are you doing?” he asks her, stomping into the room and yanking the bow out of her hands. “You aren’t allowed to touch that.” 

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Grace says, looking up at him with wide eyes. “I didn’t even touch the arrows.”

He wants to yell at her. To tell her that it doesn’t matter. That she’s a kid and has no business around any of this. However, the scared look in her eyes does wonders to calm him down. 

He’s not genuinely upset. He’s afraid. But fear is no excuse for yelling at his daughter. He knows that he can be a terrifying guy, but he’s never wanted his kids to know that side of him.

He takes a steadying breath and counts to 10 in his mind until his hands stop shaking and he feels like he can breathe again. 

“What were you doing?” he asks, this time much calmer than before.

“I was thinking…” she says, biting her lips like she wants to tell him something but doesn’t know how to.

He puts the bow down on the floor, far away from the bed, then sits down next to her and pulls her into his lap. 

“Talk to me,” he says. 

Her eyes go instantly to the floor and he decides to wait her out. Grace has a difficult time processing her emotions, so many times, it takes her awhile to figure out how to word what she’s feeling. Prodding her to talk isn’t going to get him the answers he wants. He needs to have patience. He rubs her back, letting him know that he’s here whenever she’s ready. 

“I want you to teach me,” she finally says, after a few minutes of silence. 

His first instinct is to say absolutely not. He will be damned if either of his children turn into the next wave of vigilantes. He’d tried that before and all too often, it had fatal results. Just look at the latest Team Arrow. They’d all died only 6 weeks ago. As much as Grace is like him in everything, she will not be like him in this. 

Still, he can’t outright turn her down, not immediately. It had taken her time to admit that this is what she wanted from him, which means that it’s rooted in a very real place for her. He needs to find out why. 

“You want me to teach you how to shoot an arrow?” he asks, trying to buy himself time to figure out the best way to navigate this conversation. 

“I want you to teach me how to fight,” she says, looking up from the floor to meet his eyes. In them, he can see the fear. She’s terrified of something happening to her. 

It hits him like a punch in the gut.

He hadn’t protected her. He hadn’t taken care of her like he’d promised he always would. And now she doesn’t trust him to protect her anymore. She wants to learn to protect herself. 

He lets out a shaky breath. “You’re only 8.”

He knows that, as valid of an argument as her young age is, it’s not going to be a valid reason for her. 

“Bradley Fitzgerald is only 8 and he’s a black belt,” she says, crossing her arms, sending him a challenging look.

“And while that may be true—” 

“4-H club at my school teaches kids archery, so it can’t even be that dangerous,” she argues, cutting him off. 

“Perhaps—” 

“Don’t you want me to be safe?” she asks, not letting him get a word in edgewise. 

“Grace,” he says firmly but calmly, getting her to settle down and listen. 

“It’s not that I don’t want you to be safe,” he tells her. “That’s all I want for you. But you have to understand what you’re asking me to do here. You’re my daughter. My very young daughter. I put on the hood every day so that you and your sister never have to. I don’t want this life for you. I won’t train you to become a vigilante.”

Her eyes start to water, a clear sign that she’s upset with his answer, but she’ll have to live with that. 

While he can understand her frustration, it’s not enough to convince him that she should be trained. She’s afraid. It’s natural. The attack only happened a week ago. It’ll pass, just like the nightmares she had when Felicity and he were kidnapped eventually did. 

He just needs to give her time. 

“I don’t want to be a vigilante,” Grace says, crawling out of his lap to stand in front of him, arms crossed in defiance. “I want to know how to be safe if a bad man tries to take me or Ella.” 

Oliver rubs his hands over his face, frustrated. At this rate, they will most certainly be late for the ball, meaning their window for getting into Eichmann’s servers will drop. He doesn’t have time for this argument, but he also can’t just leave Grace when she’s upset. 

“Even if I agreed to teach you, I don’t think you have the strength for it yet,” Oliver tells her, trying to get her to see reason. “You wouldn’t be able to draw the bow.” 

“How strong do I have to be?” she asks. 

Oliver hears a snort of amusement from the door and turns to see Felicity is leaning against the door frame, watching the entire exchange. 

“A little help here?” he asks her, but she shakes her head. This one is going to be all him. He glares at her, but there’s no real venom behind it. 

“Tell me how strong I need to be,” Grace demands, and in that moment, he sees Thea in her, clear as day. Grace was born with the Queen determination that unfortunately for him, presents itself all too often as stubbornness. Grace isn’t going to let this go. Not unless he can get her to see how difficult archery would be.

“You would need to draw a recurve bow at a 20 pound pull weight consistently,” he says, causing Felicity to send him a curious look. 

It’s more than double the recommended weight for a beginner of her age, but they pick those weights based on what a child is capable of doing. He doesn’t want Grace to see she’s capable of this. He wants her to see that it’s hard. To know that if she’s really serious about this, it’s not going to be as easy as she thinks. 

“And if I do that, you’ll teach me?” Grace asks. She’s smart. She’s determined to get him to say the words, because she knows that he’ll never back down on a promise. 

“Consistently pulling? Meaning multiple times in a row?” he asks and she nods. 

He glances at his watch. They are already 20 minutes late. They need to get going if they are going to have any hope of pulling this off. 

“Fine,” he agrees, knowing that the likelihood of her being able to draw at that weight anytime soon is slim. He’s bought himself several weeks. Months more likely. And by that point he’s sure that her fear will have subsided and she’ll drop this desire to play with a bow and arrows and go back to her American Girl dolls and lip gloss. 

“So I can practice with your bow?” she asks, hopeful. 

He shakes his head. “No. You’ll get hurt if you try and practice with that bow. We’ll get you a practice bow.” 

“Grace!” Ella screams up the stairs. “Grandpa says to come downstairs! We’re making Christmas cookies!” 

Oliver holds back a laugh at how quickly Grace’s face goes from serious to excited. 

“Go on,” he tells her. “Your mom and I have to go, anyway.” 

Grace gives them both a hug before running out the door, the sound of her feet telling him that she’s taking the stairs two at a time. 

“You’re really going to train her how to shoot?” Felicity asks, stepping into the room to offer him a hand up. He takes it and pulls himself to his feet. 

“Do you know how hard that will be for her?” Oliver asks. “I won’t be training her to do anything anytime soon.” 

Felicity laughs at that, patting his shoulder sympathetically. 

“What?” he asks. 

“Clearly you forget that Grace is  _ your _ daughter.” 

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity stares at Oliver through the bars separating their cells and bites her lip as she tries not to cringe. He looks awful. The entire right side of his face is swollen so bad he can’t even open his eye. He has burn marks up and down his arms. She can’t see beneath his shirt, but she knows if she could, she would find stiches from where he’d been stabbed with a poker. She’s seen Oliver come back with a lot of injuries, but these are infinitely worse because they are entirely her fault.  _

_ She reaches through the bars to place her hand on his swollen cheek. He winces in pain and she immediately moves to remove her hand but Oliver’s reflexes are faster than her own. He stops her, keeping her hand right where it is as he leans into her touch. His shoulders drop and it looks like the weight of the world is lifting off of him. _

_ She’s never understood that. How her presence alone can relax him so much, but she certainly doesn’t understand it now. He should be mad at her. He deserves more than a wife that is going to allow him to get tortured by her own father’s men.  _

_ “I’m so sorry, she tells him for the millionth time.  _

_ “Stop saying sorry,” he says.  _

_ “Oliver—” Her voice cracks as she speaks.   _

_ “Stop,” he says firmly.   _

_ She shakes her head, because he doesn’t understand. _

_ “I swear on my life that I will get you out of here,” Oliver tells her. “I promise you that I will. But I need time.”  _

_ “I don’t think we have time,” she whispers, trying to keep her tears at bay. When did she become this girl? The one who cries over everything? When did she become so helpless?  _

_ “We will,” he tells her. “Because you’re going to give them what they want.” _

_ “What?” she asks, shocked. “What happened to ‘don’t you dare give them a damn thing?’” _

_ It’s hard to tell with his face swollen like it is, but she think that he might be tearing up.  _

_ “It’s like you said, we don’t have time,” he tells her with a sad smile. “I can’t save you like this.” _

_ “Oliver—” _

_ Felicity scoots even closer to the bars, wanting to be as close as she can to him. She wishes that they didn’t have these bars between them so that she could pull him into her arms and hold him tight. She knows that he has to be in terrible pain if he’s just admitted weakness to her.  _

_ Oliver saying that he can’t save them like this — even if she rationally knows he’s right — terrifies her. Oliver doesn’t admit defeat. Oliver doesn’t have limits.  _

_ “No. This is about you,” he says. “I can take the torture. Waller and Ra’s made sure of that. If this were only about me, then I wouldn’t give them a damn thing. But I need to let go of my pride. We don’t have the luxury of holding out. I’m not as young as I once was. My body will give out sooner rather than later and I have to get you out of here.” _

_ “This isn’t your mess to clean up,” she says, wiping the tears from her eyes.  _

_ Oliver reaches out through the bars to grab hold of her left hand, rubbing at the spot where her ring used to be.  _

_ “For better or worse,” he says, lifting her hand to his lips so that he can kiss her ring finger.  _

_ Felicity let’s the hand on his cheek fall so that she can lace both of her hands with his own until they are both sitting cross legged, holding hands. If it weren’t for the bars between them, she could almost convince herself that it’s just another night at home for them.  _

_ Except that just another night at home doesn’t usually involve quite so many bruises.  _

_ “I’m not sure that for better or worse was meant to extend to kidnapping and torture.”  _

_ “You married a man who wears a mask and fights criminals. Kidnapping and torture were always possibilities,” he says, trying to lighten the mood. _

_ She laughs even though nothing about this is funny. _

_ “I don’t know how to give them what they want,” she says.  _

_ “You’re Felicity Smoak.”  _

_ “Queen,” she says. “They may have taken my ring, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting off that easy.”  _

_ Oliver smiles at that. “You can do anything.”  _

_ His faith in her is astounding, but it’s incredibly biased. “I really, really can’t.”  _

_ “Abraham wouldn’t have asked you to do this if he didn’t genuinely believe that you could,” he tells her.  _

_ “So you want me to build a fusion bomb for them,” she asks, shaking her head. Even if she could, the idea is insane. She can’t help her father get any closer to mass destruction than he already is. She won’t.  _

_ “Of course not,” Oliver tells her. _

_ Felicity looks at him in confusion. How is she supposed to cooperate without building the bomb?  _

_ “I want you to do something to buy us more time,” he tells her. “Make them think that you’re building the bomb. Make it convincing. Get them off our backs for a little bit so that I can have the time to get you out of here.”  _

_ “You keep saying you,” she says. “I want to be clear here. Any kind of suicide mission you’re thinking about in your head… It’s not an option. There is no option where you don’t make it out of this alive, Oliver.”  _

_ “Felicity…”  _

_ “Oliver.”  _

_ The two of them stare at each other, waiting for the other one to break.  _

_ Her father was at least right about one thing. There is nothing that the two of them won’t do for each other, and while most days, Felicity finds that romantic. Today is not that day.  _

_ “There is nothing I’ll consider heroic about dying for me,” Felicity says. “It’s not an option.”  _

_ Oliver tugs on her hands until she leans forward and rests her head against the bars. He then kisses her head before resting his forehead against her own.  _

_ “Do what you need to do to buy us time and we can talk about everything else later,” he says, effectively ending the conversation.  _

_ Felicity isn’t stupid. She knows that he doesn’t make her any promises because he’s 100% planning on dying in order to get her out of here and that’s not okay with her. The world needs Oliver Queen. It needs the Green Arrow.  _

_ Felicity needs him. She won’t lose him.  _

****

**2026**

“Your security is in place, Mayor Queen,” Digg informs Oliver once they both finally make it through the red carpet and into the ballroom of the Striker building.

It’s a great turnout, but then, Felicity isn’t surprised. Oliver’s events are always a hit thanks to Thea’s tireless work on making sure every detail is accounted for and Oliver’s charismatic personality. The Queen siblings know how to get Star City’s elite to open up their checkbooks. Moira Queen had trained them well.

Unfortunately, Oliver’s mind won’t be on raising funds to build a free daycare in the Glades, tonight, they’ll be focused on making sure they get the intel they need to take down The Final Order without alerting Eichmann.

Felicity feels bad for the mothers that need the daycare, but she’ll write them a hefty check later to make up for it. Right now, she needs to focus on the mission.

“Do we see him?” Felicity asks through gritted teeth as she pastes a smile on her face and waves at some board members.

“He’s at the bar, pretending to flirt with a woman,” Dig tells them quietly, as Oliver helps her out of her coat and hands it off to a member of the staff. “It’s the best vantage point in the room. I doubt it’s by accident.”

“Okay,” Oliver says. “Let’s make our rounds so we don’t look suspicious. Be in position in an hour.”

Digg nods his head before stepping back to the edge of the room where the other personal security guards are watching patiently. It seems, no matter how low the crime rate gets in Star City, the elite will never again feel safe without their bodyguards and Felicity can’t blame them.

“I need to go and say hello to Mr. Adams,” Felicity tells him, feeling zero motivation to actually go do so, but she knows that she can’t ignore him without hearing about it later. She starts to move away before Oliver’s hand finds its way to the small of her back and he goes to follow her.

She sends him a questioning look.

“The city already knows we are back together, there’s no reason to split up,” he tells her, but she can see the worry in his eyes.

This isn’t about showing her off to his friends; this is him being scared to let her out of his sight. She can’t blame him. They’ve just stepped into the seventh circle of hell, reserved for the most violent offenders. She just prays that in the end, it’s Eichmann and his men that end up drowning in a lake of boiling blood rather than Team Arrow.

The thought sends an icy chill down her spine. She’d been sure to hug Grace and Ella extra tight on her way out the door tonight, fearing it may be the last time she sees them. She, more than most, knows how quickly even the best laid plans can fall apart. Fighting the Slade Wilsons of the world is terrifying, but taking on terrorist organizations are something else entirely.

“Keep smiling,” Oliver whispers in her ear. “They’ll smell blood in the water.”

Felicity nods, knowing he’s right, and pastes a smile back on her face. She’ll be damned if she lets these antisemitic assholes see her sweat.

“Ms. Smoak, I’m happy to see you here, rumor has it that you’ve been MIA since the attack on Palmer Tech,” Mr. Adams says wearing a smile that is anything but kind. He’s one of the vultures that is always waiting for her to fail just to prove himself right, even if her failure means him losing millions in investments.

“I’ve been working from home since our offices are currently undergoing repairs,” Felicity says.

“Don’t you think that the public needs to see you out and about to prove that Palmer Tech is still going strong?” Mr. Adams asks.

Felicity wants to sigh in frustration, but knows it would be completely unprofessional and she’s not willing to give him even a centimeter of rope to hang her with. She’s already released statements to the public through the PR department, so it’s not as if Mr. Adams doesn’t already know where she stands on this.

It hadn’t taken long for the public to catch wind of what really happened at Palmer Tech even if they didn’t know that The Final Order was to blame. Too many employees had to be hospitalized for trauma and eventually people had connected the dots and figured out that somebody had released Fear Toxin in the Palmer Tech building.

“I’ve been advised that the construction crews will be more productive if we keep everyone working from home. In addition, consultations with HR have informed me that the best way to improve morale is to give everyone time and space to recover,” she says, doing her best to keep the venom out of her words. “Everyone should be back to work next Monday. I assume that’s okay with you, Mr. Adams. I did get the approval of the board.”

The remark is meant to be pointed. While Mr. Adams may be a large and vocal investor, he’s not a board member. Despite his best efforts over the last few years, he’s been unable to gain enough support to be voted onto the board. Felicity, thankfully, isn’t the only one that can see through Mr. Adams.

“Well, I for one am happy with Palmer Tech’s decision,” Oliver says, stepping in. “Over a hundred employees were hospitalized due to trauma endured and thousands more exposed to that toxic gas. SCPD and Gotham PD are working together to catch the culprits, but until they do, I know that Palmer Tech’s employees will feel safer working from home.”

Mr. Adams looks like he’s about to interject, but Oliver continues on, not giving him the space to criticize.

“I appreciate Palmer Tech’s ability to always put their employees well-being over their profit margins,” Oliver continues. “It’s the reason that Palmer Tech has been voted the number 1 place to work in Star City and I firmly believe that is one of many reasons that the company continues to thrive under Felicity’s leadership. But, please, let’s put business out of our minds for now to focus on what’s important. This is a charity event. Go drink plenty of wine, indulge in the delicious food my sister has no doubt planned for us, and be sure to make generous bids on our silent auction items. I personally have my eyes on courtside seats for the Rockets.”

Mr. Adams looks at Felicity, clearly wanting to say more to her, but can’t. Not after Oliver has just called him out for trying to turn this evening into a business meeting. Everyone knows that the mayor frowns upon business discussions at his charity events.

“Enjoy your evening,” Mr. Adams tells her with a fake smile before walking away.

“I could have handled that,” she reminds him.

“I know, but it’s more fun when we do it together,” he tells her with a wink before leading her over to greet Dillon Scott, the district attorney and a good friend of Oliver’s.

The two of them spend the next hour making small talk with Star City’s elite, suffering through endless questions about their relationship status, proudly bragging about their children, and carefully dodging questions about Palmer Tech and criticisms of how Felicity has handled the crisis. Apparently, Star City doesn’t fear terrorists and she should have stayed open. She’d like to point out the hypocrisy of that statement, considering the amount of security that each one of her naysayers travels with, but Oliver prevents her from doing so. It’s easy to point fingers and say what should have been done when not a single one of them actually works at Palmer Tech and was exposed to the Fear Toxin.

Ten minutes before go time, Oliver pulls her away from an incredibly boring discussion with Judge Brackett.

“Dance with me,” he tells her, which is her signal that it’s time. He pulls her out onto the dance floor and holds her close. He is sure to run his hands up and down her back in a way that let’s anyone watching them know that Oliver Queen wants Felicity Smoak.

Five minutes to go time, he begins leaving kisses along her neck and whispering instructions into her ear.

“Pretend I’m telling you something dirty,” he tells her, and she giggles like a teenager.

“There are guards at each exit,” he whispers into her ear. “Eichmann is still watching us at my 6.”

She makes herself blush and looks down at the floor, pretending to be embarrassed, while carefully checking the exits out of the corner of her eye. He’s right; they are Eichmann’s men guarding the door. Even if Oliver’s security team has control over all security cameras and the main entrances and exits of the building, Eichmann’s men still have control of the immediate area. Oliver didn’t have enough security detail to man everything and he couldn’t come up with a valid excuse to block Eichmann’s men from working the event altogether. The best they’d been able to do was keep his men from the control center.

“Do you still think we can get past them?” she asks quietly, hitting his shoulder playfully before laughing and telling him to stop loud enough for the people around them to hear. She notices the guests dancing nearby sending them knowing looks.

“When we walk out of this room, we need to make sure that everyone assumes that I’m just looking for somewhere private to ravage you,” he whispers, explaining the plan to her.

She wants to remind him that she remembers the plan well enough, seeing how she’s the one that came up with it. When they’d decided that Oliver would be the one to accompany Felicity to the server room, they’d needed a good cover. After all, plenty of people would question where the mayor was if he went missing from his own event for a half an hour. She’d been the one to suggest that they play up their new relationship.

Anyone that knew them before their divorce would remember how they could barely keep their hands off of each other. Nobody will be surprised if Oliver drags her away from the event for a little one-on-one time. It wouldn’t be the first time.

“How are you planning on getting past the guards?” Felicity asks him as he begins nibbling on her ear. She feels heat settle in the pit of her stomach and she has to remind herself not to get carried away. This is all for show. The second Oliver drags her out of the room, it won’t be so they can have sex in an abandoned office. It will be to break into the server room and pray they don’t get caught.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got a distraction planned,” he tells her.

“They will expect Thea and Roy to try something,” she warns him.

“Which is why it won’t come from Thea or Roy,” he says with a smile.

Oliver glances over at Dillon. Felicity watches as Dillon walks over to Henry Collins, the owner of the Exchange Building who, at 87, is still prone to drinking and behaving like he’s 25. Dillon whispers something in his ear. Within a minute, Mr. Collins is falling into a waitress, knocking her to the floor. The tray full of champagne glasses the girl had been carrying shatters, causing all heads in the room to turn.

“Mr. Collins, I’m so sorry,” the girl says, sounding terrified as she immediately starts to clean up the mess.

“Well aren’t you a pretty little thing?” Mr. Collins says, slurring his speech.

Felicity looks to Oliver in concern for the girl but Oliver shakes his head. “She’ll be fine.”

“Oliver…” she says in warning. The last thing they need is for the girl to be sexually harassed at Oliver’s event.

Mr. Collins continues to make a big scene, pushing at Dillon, who tries to intervene, and sending him stumbling into a nearby table. At this point a crowd has started to form, blocking Eichmann’s view of Oliver and Felicity. Oliver takes her hand and quickly navigates through the crowd until they reach one of the exits. The guard who’d been keeping watch had abandoned his post in order to step in and control the brewing fight.

They walk quickly, thankful that most of the guests have gone to watch the train wreck happening in the ballroom leaving the hallway empty. They reach the door to the stairwell without incident and Oliver quickly pulls her inside.

“What was that?” Felicity asks him the second Oliver finishes assessing their surroundings and assures her that there is nobody else in the stairwell with them.

“I told Dillon that I was trying to get some alone time with you but was worried about reporters following us,” he says with a shrug causing her to roll her eyes.  

“They did  _ all of that _ just to get you laid?” she asks, wishing he was kidding but she knows he’s not. “I guess there  _ is _ some benefit to the Old Boys’ Club. God that poor girl caught in the middle of this.”

“Felicity, that girl was in on it. She’s Dillon’s nanny. She just caters for extra cash,” Oliver says as he gestures for her to start moving down the stairs. She does so as quickly and quietly as she can in heels.

While she’s not thrilled at Oliver getting his friends to cause a fight so that he can have sex, she reminds herself that it’s not like they are actually going to have sex. He did this in order to cause a diversion so they can safely get to the server room. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not the worst thing that could have happened and certainly not the worst thing they’ve ever done.

“Those guys have been trying to get me laid for years, ever since they found out I haven’t had sex since the divorce,” he says. “They were more than happy to help out.”

Felicity freezes at his words, causing Oliver to nearly run her over in his haste to get them down to the server room. He scans the stairwell for movement, then turns to her in confusion.

“Did you hear something?” he asks.

She shakes her head. “You haven’t had sex since the divorce?”

It’s a silly thing to focus on, she realizes. She doesn’t need to see Oliver’s confused expression to realize that.

“What?” he asks.

“I assumed you would have had sex with somebody at some point,” she says.

Oliver looks annoyed, if not a bit angry.

“Why? When would I have had sex? With who? You were the only one I wanted. You’ve  _ been _ the only person I’ve slept with since our first time together,” he tells her with an annoyed roll of his eyes, like she should have known better. “Why? Who have you slept with?”

“Nobody,” she says quickly.

“Then why would you think I would have?”

Maybe she shouldn’t have assumed. She’d known he was still in love with her and that he hadn’t been dating anyone else, but a part of her had always pictured him taking advantage of the countless beautiful women that throw themselves at him. That was how she made herself feel better, even if it hurt to think of him with another woman. After all, how guilty could she feel leaving him if she pictured him being satisfied by women far more beautiful than her?

“I’m sorry,” she says, about to explain herself when Digg cuts them off.

“Guys, can you finish this conversation later? Preferably in private?” he says, causing her to blush. She’d forgotten they’d left the com line open and that Digg, along with Thea and Roy, were still listening in.

“Sorry,” Felicity says, blushing furiously.

“You’d better be,” Thea says.

She forces her mind to focus back on the task at hand.

“There’s a guard on the other side of the doorway when you reach the bottom of the stairs,” Digg informs them. “He’s one of our own, so tranq him. Don’t hurt him.”

“Got it,” Oliver says, pulling Felicity behind him so that he’s leading the way.

He holds onto her arm, keeping her close, ready to protect her should Eichmann’s men find them. She tries not to think about the fact that if Eichmann’s men find them, they are as good as dead.

They reach the bottom of the stairs and Oliver gestures for her to stand in the corner, out of the way, as he moves to the doorway.

“On my signal,” Digg says.

Oliver waits patiently, standing with his tranq flechette in hand, ready to move.

“Now.”

The words have barely left Digg’s mouth and Oliver already has the door open. He throws his flechette at the man’s neck before he can turn to catch a glimpse of Oliver’s face. The guard stumbles as he tries to turn around to confront his attacker, reaching for his weapon. He trips over his own feet before falling to the floor unconscious.

Felicity doesn’t dare move until Digg comes over the line with the all clear.

“This way,” Felicity grabs onto Oliver’s hand and leads them to the left, having memorized the building schematics to make sure that, no matter what stairwell they came down, she would know where they were.

They run into a few more guards on the way. Some of them Oliver’s men, which he carefully tranqs, some of them Eichmann’s men… Which Oliver doesn’t show the same kindness to. Those men get a punch to the face hard enough to break their nose and knock them out cold.

“The fight is clearing up, Eichmann is going to notice soon that you’re not there,” Roy informs them.

“You need to stall him,” Oliver says.

“And how do you expect me to do that?” Roy asks. Before they can answer, Thea’s surprised voice comes over the coms.

“Mr. Eichmann,” Thea says, causing Oliver to tense up. “I was just telling Mrs. Loring how grateful we are that you decided to let us host our event here last minute. It’s such a beautiful space.”

Thea sounds nervous, but she’s holding herself together well. Felicity’s sure that nobody outside of the team will hear the slight waver in her voice.

“Would you believe that I’ve lived in Star City my entire life and have never actually been here before?” Thea asks, pretending like nothing is wrong.

“Where’s Oliver?” Eichmann cuts right to the chase.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” she hears Mrs. Loring say, before presumably stepping away.

“Oliver?” Thea asks, feigning ignorance. “I’m sure he’s around here somewhere…”

Felicity and Oliver make it to the server room. She places a device on the door to decode the security lock and presses a button to start the process. It’ll take 30 seconds to get the door open.

“Don’t play dumb with me,” Eichmann says. “Everyone knows you’re his keeper. Where is he?”

Thea laughs, but Felicity can hear the tension in it.

“I’m in charge of getting Oliver here on time and to the podium for his speech. Beyond that, I don’t keep tabs on him,” she says. “Last I saw him he was on the dance floor with Ms. Smoak, you know they are back together now. Isn’t it just the sweetest thing? Anyway, I haven’t seen him since the fight broke out.”

“ _ Conveniently _ ,” Eichmann sounds cold. He’s no longer pretending with them. He’s out for blood and isn’t shy about it. If he finds them, he will kill them. “Since the fight  _ conveniently _ broke out.”

Felicity tries to remember that Thea can take care of herself, because she’s genuinely scared for her.

“I have no idea what you’re getting at, Mr. Eichmann, but I can assure you, there’s nothing convenient about a fight breaking out and making front page news rather than a story about us raising enough funds to build that daycare,” Thea says coolly.

“Take him down, Babe,” Roy says over the com from where he’s currently helping Digg in the control room. Oliver rolls his eyes.

“I know his little green secret,” Eichmann tells her, his voice louder, so Felicity can only assume that he’s gotten closer.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Thea says.

“Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow.”

Felicity turns to Oliver and says, “Go.”

Oliver shakes his head in horror. “I can’t leave you here alone.”  

“I’m already on my way,” Roy says. “You two get what you need and fast. There’s no time.”

The device on the door beeps quietly and the lock of the server room door slides open. She opens the door quickly and slips inside, immediately followed by Oliver.

“Even if you were right, and I’m not saying you are,” Thea says, sounding much more confident than Felicity would if the situation was reversed. “This city doesn’t just love my brother; they also worship the Green Arrow, so I’d be careful if I were you about what kind of accusations you’re willing to make. After all, SCPD’s accused my brother twice of being a vigilante and both times those charges were dropped.”

Felicity rushes over to plug the USB into the server and hook up her tablet to prepare it to transfer the data they need.

“Are you really so confident?” Eichmann asks. “So sure of your golden boy that you believe yourselves indestructible?”

Felicity keys up the program and starts the transfer as Oliver’s watches on anxiously.

“Star City may be unwilling to do anything about the vigilante problem in this city, but that doesn’t mean the FBI won’t,” Eichmann continues.

1% complete. 8 minutes remain, the screen reads, making her start to panic. It’s not going fast enough. They need more time.

“Try me,” Thea tells him, sounding very much like Moira Queen. “Cause I promise you they won’t get anything to stick but I’ll make sure they investigate you and your…  _ extracurriculars _ . So tell me Mr. Eichmann, are  _ you _ so confident? This city doesn’t take kindly to terrorists.”

Felicity gasps as Oliver calls out, “Thea.”

They can hear Eichmann’s growl on the other end and she can only pray that Thea doesn’t get herself killed.

Thea hisses in pain before saying carefully, “Let go of me before I cause a scene. Or are you really going to attack the chief of staff in the middle of a crowded ballroom filled with the city’s most influential people?”

They don’t hear anything for several tense seconds. Felicity tries to keep her breathing steady as her heart races a mile a minute. She watches as Oliver rubs at his fingers, itching for a bow, knowing that there’s nothing he can do but sit on the sidelines while Thea is being threatened. Felicity feels like she’s going to jump out of her skin if Thea doesn’t get away from Eichmann soon, so she can’t imagine how Oliver is feeling. 

“I’ll be fine. Go,” Felicity tries to tell him, but he glares at her.

“You aren't staying here alone,” Oliver says. “Roy.”

“I’m here,” Roy says. “I won’t let them take her.”

Felicity knows that Roy will fight like hell if Eichmann and his men try to make a move on Thea, but she also knows that even with all of Roy’s training, there’s no guarantee that it would be enough. They are up against something much powerful than themselves and they’d been stupid enough to think that they could just waltz into the belly of the beast without consequence.

“If you’re that sure of yourself, then why the secret?” Eichmann asks.

“What secret?” Thea asks, and Felicity can just picture the satisfied smirk on her face masking the terror she has to be feeling. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see my fiancé over there and I owe him a dance.”

“Your days are numbered, Ms. Queen,” Eichmann says. “It may be tonight; it may be tomorrow; but I swear to god your entire family will be dead within a week. You have my word. You. Your brother. Your fiancé. And all those dirty untermensch you call family.”

“What?” Thea asks, confused, but Felicity understands exactly what he’s saying and the comment sends a chill down her spine.

It’s not the first time she’s heard it, and sadly, she’s sure it won’t be the last. It’s a label her father had taught her at a young age never to let anyone call her. It means inferior and was used during the Holocaust by Hitler to describe her people. If there had been any remaining doubt about Eichmann’s involvement with The Final Order, that comment had just wiped it out.

If Oliver’s growl is anything to go by, he, too, understands exactly what Eichmann has just said. After all, you don’t marry to a Jewish woman and have two Jewish daughters without learning the meaning behind some very specific words and phrases.

“We need to move. Where are we at?” Digg asks, snapping her out of her thoughts.

“We’ve only got 5%. I need more time,” she says. Her hands start to shake from nerves. If they don’t get this data, then the entire mission will have been for nothing.

“Screw it. We’re leaving,” Oliver says, taking hold of her arm, but she yanks it out of his grip.

“We can’t go,” she tells him. “We need this information.”

“Eichmann and his men are going to kill us,” Oliver says. “That’s not a risk I’m willing to take. Not with your life. Now let’s go.”

“He’s going to kill us either way. You heard him,” she argues, sounding much braver than she feels. “We  _ need _ this. I’m not leaving.”

“I’ve got Thea,” Roy says, causing them all to relax, if only the slightest bit.

“Thea has herself, thank you very much,” Thea says. “Eichmann just headed down the hallway with 10 armed men. You two need to hurry. He thinks you’re both breaking into his office, but it won’t take him long to realize that’s a lie. It’s time to make an exit. I’ll tell everyone there was an emergency with the girls and you had to leave.”

“I’m not going until it’s done,” she tells him firmly. Oliver looks like he just might kill her, but gives in.  

“You’ve got two minutes,” he tells her.

“That’s not enough time to get everything,” she argues, shaking her head.

“Two minutes and we’re leaving,” Oliver says firmly, letting her know that no amount of arguing is going to change his mind. If he has to, he’ll literally throw her over his shoulder and carry her out, she knows he will. She doesn’t have an option. She’s got two minutes to get whatever she can.

Felicity turns back to her tablet and quickly makes changes in her program, typing furiously. Now, rather than pulling every file off of the servers, she will have to make a strategic transfer. Anything with keywords will get copied, everything else she’ll have to leave.

She tries to think of any keywords that she would find in Order related documents and adds that to her search. The Final Order, attack, Jewish, untermensch, violence, terrorism… If she can’t take everything, she needs to make sure that what she does take matters.

“90 seconds,” Digg informs them. “Roy, get the car ready. Everyone meet up at the west entrance.”

“What about you?” Oliver asks.

“I’ll stay behind to man the command center until you’re safely out,” he informs them.

Felicity immediately starts to protest, “No. You need to get out.”

“I’ll leave when you and Oliver are clear,” Digg says. “Until then, somebody has to guard the control station or you’ll be made.”

She turns to look at Oliver, trying to get him to tell Digg that he has to leave.

Oliver shakes his head, causing her to protest.

“Oliver!” she hisses, as loudly as she dares.  

“You can argue with him about it, but it’s not going to change his mind,” Oliver says with a frustrated shake of his head, letting her know that he probably has argued this fact with Digg multiple times. “He takes his job as bodyguard seriously.”

“This city can’t afford to lose its mayor,” Digg says. “Or does nobody remember what things were like when Oliver first ran?”

“We’ve got eyes on us,” Roy says. “We can’t slip out until you’re ready. The second we leave it’s going to tip our hand.”

“45 seconds,” Digg tells them. “Where are we at Felicity?”

“I really could use another 3 minutes,” she says, starting to sweat. 45 seconds isn’t going to be enough time. They’ve barely downloaded a 10 th of the data they need.

There is a sound outside of the door and Oliver has her in his arms faster than she can blink. He pushes her against the wall and hikes up the skirt of her dress.

“Put your legs around me,” he whispers in her ear, grabbing hold of her thighs and hoisting her up until the only thing holding her upright is his weight pinning her to the wall at her back.

It should be sexy, but she’s too terrified to be turned on. She isn’t sure what is happening, but the dangerous look in his eyes tells her not to ask. Not to make a sound. She holds her breath as she hears footsteps approaching the door.

They’ve been made. They are about to get caught.

She’s sure that she’s going to leave a mark where her nails are digging into Oliver’s shoulder, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He’s concentrating on the sound of the door handle opening and sooner than she’d like, the door swings open.

“Put your hands up,” a man says, the sound of him cocking a gun echoes through the room causing her to freeze in fear.

This is how she dies.

Oliver gently lowers her to the ground before putting his hands up in the air and turning around, looking sheepish. He’s very careful to block Felicity from view.

“Don’t suppose I can convince you not to give this story to the Star City Gazette?” Oliver asks.

Felicity wonders if he honestly thinks that this will work. Does he really believe that he can charm his way out of this one? That anyone will buy that they’ve just happened upon the mayor attempting to have sex in the locked server room? Even if Eichmann still has men that don’t know Oliver is the Green Arrow, there’s no way they are buying Oliver’s story. It’s worse than his sports drink in a syringe tale.

“Mayor Queen?” the man says, surprised.

Felicity moves her head around Oliver’s body to get a look at the man’s appearance. He’s not even a man at all, she realizes. He’s a kid. She’d be surprised if he’s even 18. He looks familiar to her, but she can’t place him.

“Oh, wow. I’m sorry. They told me that we were looking for The Green Arrow, but not…” the boy pauses, looking them up and down, taking in Oliver’s defensive stance and she can see the wheels turning in his head.  “Shit. Oliver Queen is the Green Arrow?”

It’s his look of betrayal that does it for her. She can easily see it now. A boy, barely 12, standing in front of his mother’s casket, crying. Felicity’s met this boy before. His mother had been an employee of hers.

“Bobby?” she asks, stepping out from behind Oliver, who tries to grab her arm and stop her from walking up to the boy, but she pulls out of his grasp.

“Bobby White?”

“Ms. Smoak? What are you doing here?” he says, lowering his gun in surprise. Oliver takes advantage of the opportunity and removes the gun from Bobby’s hand, but Bobby doesn’t protest. He’s too busy staring at her with his mouth open.

“I should ask you the same thing,” she says. “Do you work for Eichmann?”

It can’t be true. She knows the Whites. She’d known Bobby’s mother. Never in a million years would she have pegged Bobby as a kid that would end up working for The Final Order.

“Yes,” he says, without an ounce of shame or remorse.

“Oh Bobby,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Felicity?” Oliver speaks up but she waves him off.

Bobby glares at Oliver before turning back to her.

“Well somebody has to protect this city,” he says, defensively. “ _ He _ lets the Jews run wild, completely unchecked, as they steal all of our money from us leaving the rest of us penniless.”

Oliver looks like he’s just been slapped and is about to intervene when Felicity sends him a warning look to let her handle this.

She’s seen kids like Bobby before. They both have. Teenagers are easy targets for hate groups. They are young, impressionable, and so desperate to do something about the pain they feel that they don’t realize the group they are turning to for support is feeding them lies.

Clearly, Bobby is another one of those kids that’s been on a strict diet of hate and fearmongering, and she has no idea for how long. She doesn’t know how deep into his psyche the hate has spread, but she can’t believe that these thoughts and feelings are truly his own. He comes from such a good, kind hearted family.

“Bobby…” she says, but the boy doesn’t want to hear it.

“No!” he yells. “You don’t get it. You’ve never been poor.”

“I grew up in the bad part of Vegas with a single mother who worked as a cocktail waitress,” she says, not unkindly, recognizing that this will require a gentle touch. After all, if he thinks that all Jewish people are evil, she needs to show him that’s not true. Few things have the power to eradicate hate than a simple act of kindness.

“I know how unfair the income inequality in this country is,” she tells him. “I grew up asking myself how men could come into my mother’s casino and throw away thousands on craps tables while we required food stamps to eat.”

“Then you understand what Mr. Eichmann is trying to do,” he says, passionately.

Oliver sends her a nervous look, but she shakes her head. Bobby isn’t a threat; she just has to help him see the light.

“No,” she shakes her head. “I understand what Mr. Eichmann is promising you, but it’s not what he’s doing. This isn’t about money. It’s not about saving the poor by bridging the income gap. This is about hate and I know you are better than that.”

“The Jews all need to die,” Bobby tells her and she has to physically hold Oliver back from attacking the kid.

“He doesn’t know what he’s saying, Oliver,” she tells him. “Can’t you see that he’s been brainwashed?”

“I haven’t been brainwashed!” Bobby argues.

It takes another minute for Oliver to realize she’s right and calm down enough that she can let go and turn back to Bobby.

“A worthy cause doesn’t need to use children as foot soldiers. It can find plenty of grown men willing to fight for it,” Felicity says. “You may not realize it yet, but Eichmann isn’t to be trusted. He fed you with lies and made empty promises so that you’d follow him blindly.”

“I was living in the streets before I met Mr. Eichmann,” Bobby says. “He gave me a home. He keeps me fed.”

“And in exchange, you’re walking around with a gun willing to shoot the mayor of the city. Love and compassion are free. If Mr. Eichmann really cared about you, he wouldn’t make conditions,” she tells him.

“Well what have the Jews ever done for me?” he asks.

Felicity realizes that Bobby doesn’t know. It hadn’t crossed her mind before, because frankly, the entire world knew. She’s one of the most well-known Jews in Star City. Everyone in the city believed she’d been the victim of The Final Order once before when she was abducted. She didn’t realize that Bobby might not have been old enough to know that story.

She didn’t realize that he wouldn’t know.

Now that it’s clear that he doesn’t know she’s one of the people he’s fighting to exterminate, she doesn’t know if she should play this card. While it’s the best card she has in her hand, there’s the very real possibility that Bobby is too far gone and will lash out at her when he finds out the truth. But it’s like her mother always says, go big or go home.

“I’m Jewish,” she says.

Bobby takes a step away from her towards the door, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I don’t understand,” he whispers. “You can’t be… You were so nice to my family. You paid off my mother’s medical expenses when the insurance company came after us. You were at her funeral. You fought to change insurance laws on our behalf.”

“It was the least I could do,” Felicity says.

Oliver sends her a questioning look and since Bobby doesn’t look like he’ll be able to make a coherent sentence for another minute or two, she decides to fill him in.

“I met Bobby when he was 11,” she tells him. “It wasn’t long after you and I had gotten back from Syria. Bobby’s mother had just died of cancer. She had worked for me for years in the legal department. She actually used to work for you. Your father hired her. She was a good woman. Bright, strong willed, and always looking out for others. I figured the least I could do was look out for her family when she died.”

She feels guilty now, because she’d written the family a check, made a few phone calls to some politicians on their behalf, and promptly forgotten all about it. She’d had so much going on in her life at the time that she hadn’t ever followed up. She never checked in with the Whites to find out how they were doing.

Felicity hears Bobby start to cry, and she turns her attention back to him. “She wouldn’t want this for you.”

“Yeah, well she wouldn’t want my dad to be too strung out on vertigo to take care of her son either, but here we are,” Bobby says.

“Oh Bobby,” she says, unsure of what to say.

“Is that why you’re here?” Oliver asks, causing Bobby to glare at him. Oliver holds his hands up defensively, but takes another step closer to him. “There are programs that can help you. This isn’t your only option.”

“I don’t qualify. I’m not 18 and I’m not going into foster care,” Bobby says, shaking his head. “The Final Order is going to change the world.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Oliver says. “But will it be for better or for worse?”

Felicity can see Bobby’s resolve crumbling. It won’t take much more for him to realize what he’s doing is wrong. They can still save him.

“I know the frustration you must be feeling,” Felicity tells him. “I feel it every day. You want to do something, but this isn’t the answer. Fighting oppression with hate isn’t going to get you the results you want. The Final Order is murdering Jewish people and now they want to murder my family for doing nothing but standing up to them. We are not the reason that you are poor, and killing us isn’t going to bring you the change you’re seeking. You’re talking about bringing about a second Holocaust.”

The words seem to have an effect on Bobby, because he immediately starts shaking his head defensively. “No.”

“That’s what Mr. Eichmann and The Final Order stand for. They want to murder my people until there is nobody left,” she says.

“You were kind to me once,” Bobby says, eying her up, like he wants to trust her but he isn’t quite ready to take that leap.

“Because your mother was once kind to me,” Felicity says. “Hate isn’t the only two-way street.”

Bobby’s walkie talkie goes off, startling them all. The Order is asking him if he’s found anything in the server room.

Oliver tenses up, his hand tightening over the gun he’s grabbed from Bobby. He’s not raising it just yet, but she knows he won’t hesitate to shoot if their safety gets called into question. There isn’t anything Oliver won’t do to protect her, even if that means shooting a boy. She prays it won’t come to that.

Bobby stares at them both, trying to decide what to do. She can see the war in his eyes. He doesn’t want to turn them in, but he’s also not ready to leave the safety he’s found in The Order.

“Please,” she whispers to him, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder. It’s the simplest of gestures, but it’s enough.

“Server room is clear,” Bobby says into the walkie talkie. “They must have already left before I got here.”

“Thank you,” Oliver says.

“I didn’t do it for you,” Bobby says, looking at Felicity.

“Guys! We’ve gotta move, now!” Roy says urgently into the coms.

Oliver quickly pockets her equipment before grabbing her arm and pulling her to the door. Both of them stop when they realize that Bobby isn’t following them out.

“You’re not coming with us?” Felicity asks. “We can help you.”

Bobby shakes his head. “My family is here.”

Felicity sighs in frustration, she can’t just leave him here with these monsters.

“If they find out you lied, they’ll kill you,” Oliver tells him.

“They’ll never find out,” Bobby tells him. “You’re not the only one that can keep a secret Mayor Queen.”

Oliver nods at him and pulls Felicity out the door before she can do anything crazy, like try to drag Bobby out of here kicking and screaming.

“He’s just a kid,” she says as they run down the hallway as fast as they can.

“They are all just kids,” Oliver says, giving her a pointed look. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments mean the world to me! Thanks for the support you continue to give this story :)


	22. In the Name of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the present, things between Felicity and Oliver heat. Meanwhile, in the past, Felicity deals with a looming deadline as she tries to figure out how to keep both Oliver and her alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *****This story has officially moved from mature to explicit.****** If that's not your thing, go ahead and skip past everything in the 2026 storyline that happens from the time Felicity is walking up the stairs with champagne glasses straight to the final 2021 scene ;) 
> 
> A special shout out goes to Megan for helping me with the bones of our steamy Olicity scene, which I've been super nervous to write. And another shout out to Emma and Mel for always being there to look over and help me fix things. 
> 
> Finally, I apologize for the long wait between updates. This chapter in particular was one that I've been incredibly nervous to post because it includes major climatic scenes in both storylines. Hopefully, I did them the justice they deserve <3 
> 
> Only a few chapters left to go...

 

[ ](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/adiwriting/media/New%20City%20of%20Fallen%20Heroes_zps08wrjtyw.png.html)

******2026**

“I’m not giving up. I’m being realistic!” Oliver hears Thea argue as he walks down the stairs with Grace and Ella following closely behind him. 

“Why don’t you guys go check on Mommy,” he tells them, stopping halfway down the stairs to block their progress. 

“But you just asked us if we want to help make pancakes,” Ella says slowly, giving him a look like she thinks he’s lost his mind. 

“It’s realistic to cancel our wedding?” Roy says, clearly exasperated. 

“Are they fighting?” Grace asks, looking worried. 

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Oliver says. “Why don’t you two go make sure that Mommy is up.” 

“Mommy isn’t up,” Ella says, shrugging her shoulders. “I already checked and she told me she was sleeping and to find you.” 

Oliver snorts at that. Of course she did. To be fair, he’s not sure what time she finally went to bed last night. She’s been up into the early hours of the morning every night since they managed to steal some of the data off of Eichmann’s servers. She’s desperately trying to work through all of the files in order to give them enough to take the Order down once and for all.  

“Roy, are you even listening to me? It’s not happening!” Thea yells, causing all three of them to flinch.

“Why is Aunt Thea angry?” Grace asks. 

“Does she need a hug?” Ella asks. 

“Maybe she does,” Oliver tells Ella. “You both go upstairs and play for a little bit, okay? I’ll talk to your Aunt Thea and then come and get you when it’s time for pancakes.”

“Fine,” Ella grumbles before stomping her way back up the stairs, but Grace doesn’t move. 

“Are they going to get divorced?” Grace asks him, her bottom lip starting to tremble. 

“Of course not,” Oliver tells her, pulling her in for a hug, knowing how anxious she gets around confrontation. “For starters, they aren’t married yet, and only married people can get divorced. And your Aunt Thea and Uncle Roy love each other. They have been through a lot. They aren’t going to break up.” 

“Mom and you did,” Grace mumbles, but he hears her clearly. He hates that she’s still so affected by everything that happened 5 years ago. If Felicity and him getting back together doesn’t lessen her anxiety levels, he’s going to have to talk to Felicity about possibly putting her in therapy.  

“Yes, but look at us now. We’re back together. People that love each other always find their way back together,” he tells her, running his fingers through her hair in an effort to soothe her. 

She nods, accepting his words as truth, at least for now. She pulls away from him, turns around and runs back up the stairs, calling after Ella. “You better not be playing with my tablet!” 

For a moment, Oliver debates following after her to break up whatever fight is about to happen, but decides against it when he hears a crash from below. He hurries down the last few steps and enters the kitchen where wedding decorations are scattered across the floor.

“Is everything alright?” he asks, tentatively, unsure if Thea is going to be upset that he’s intruding on their fight, but he can’t help it. Even after all of these years, he still feels the need to look after her.  

“Thea wants to call off the wedding,” Roy says, gesturing to her wildly, as if he’s trying to signal Oliver to fix it. 

Oliver looks to Thea in shock, because she’s been in love with Roy for close to 8 years, he can’t imagine her breaking things off now after everything they’ve been through together. 

“ _ Postpone _ the wedding,” Thea clarifies with a roll of her eyes. “I told Roy we have to  _ postpone _ the wedding.” 

“No, you told me we have to cancel the wedding,” Roy says. “And it doesn’t matter because we aren’t doing it.” 

“Oh really? You’re just going to force me down the aisle then?” Thea asks with a snort of laughter, even though he’s sure she doesn’t find anything humorous about the situation. “I’m sure that’s really going to be a magical day.” 

“Just… wait,” Oliver says, holding his hands up trying to get them both to calm down for a second so that he can figure out what the hell is happening. “Can we start from the beginning? What is going on?” 

“I told Roy that we need to postpone the wedding until it’s safe,” Thea explains, crossing her arms. “Roy doesn’t seem at all concerned about the safety of our guests.” 

Oliver turns to Roy, waiting for his explanation, because Oliver’s sure that he’s missing something here. It’s not like Roy to be cavalier about the safety of others. Himself, sure, but not others and especially not Thea. 

“I don’t want to postpone the wedding,” Roy says. “Thea has been dreaming about this day for close to a year now and she deserves to have it. And I don’t want to wait because we all know how dangerous the Order is. I don’t want something to happen to us before we have a chance to be married.” 

Oliver bites back a grin, because Roy doesn’t talk a lot about his feelings, but Oliver knows that, deep down, he is just as hopeless a romantic as Oliver is. They are both men that know what it’s like to have nothing, so they hold onto love with everything they’ve got. 

“Marriage is a piece of paper,” Thea says with an exasperated sigh. “For all intents and purposes, you and I are already married. Does it really matter if we put off making it legal for another few weeks?” 

“It matters to  _ you _ ,” Roy says, giving her a pointed look, and Oliver has to agree even if he’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut and try to let them work it out first. 

Thea has been dreaming of her wedding since she was a little girl and used to run around wearing a veil made out of toilet paper until their mother called it tacky and bought her a real one to play dress up with. Even now that she’s grown up and become a lot more jaded, she still has a light in her eyes when she talks about her wedding.

“I’m telling you that it doesn’t,” she says. 

“Then why have you put everyone through all of this planning in order to make this the perfect day if you don’t care that much?” 

“I care about the wedding. But I don’t care about it more than I care about you or the lives of everyone I love. We can get married another time. It’s not that important,” she says.

Oliver can’t help but feel sad at Thea’s words. He hates that she’s lost so much in her life that she has to be so afraid of losing the only family she has left. Oliver knows what that fear is like and he would do anything for her not to have to feel like that. 

He just wants her to be happy and healthy, but that will never happen so long as the Order is around. 

“And I’m just saying that I don’t want this to be one more thing that’s been taken away from you,” Roy argues.  

“I’m a big girl, I can handle it,” Thea says. “The wedding is postponed, end of story.” 

At that Thea stalks off, effectively ending the conversation. Roy turns to Oliver and gives him a look. “You were supposed to help me out, man.” 

“Well she has a point. Eichmann threatened us openly. We can’t exactly ask everyone we know to come to a wedding when it’ll be painting a giant target on our backs.” 

“Thea has given up everything. She lost her home. She lost her business. She lost her parents... She took your kids in for nearly 3 months, ba sically becoming an insta-mom when you were gone and never once complained even though she was struggling to come to terms with the fact that you were probably dead. She’s spent the last ten years of her life working under you to make sure that both you and the city are taken care of. Her entire life is about helping other people,” Roy says, truly working himself up. Oliver isn’t sure he’s ever seen him like this. 

“She gives and gives and rarely asks for anything in return, but she asked me for this wedding and I refuse to let the Order take one more thing from her,” Roy says, refusing to back down from this. And the more Oliver thinks about it, the more he agrees that he shouldn’t. He’s right. Thea deserves this. A wedding is the least that they can do for all she’s done for them. 

“Let me call in some favors and see what I can do,” Oliver says. 

****

**_2022_ **

_ She can hear Oliver breathing heavily behind her, clearly trying to hide how much pain he’s in from the latest round of torture he’s endured. He’s hanging from the same chains he’s hooked up to every day. If she were to turn around, she would be able to see nearly every inch of his body covered with bruising from three weeks of nonstop abuse. She would see fresh scars and open wounds rivaling the worst of his experiences from his five years away and tenure as the Green Arrow.   _

_ If Felicity were to turn around, she would see her husband’s neverending suffering, but she can’t. She’s not allowed to look up from her work at the table in front of her without risking a bullet to the head. _

_ So she keeps working. She keeps lying to herself. Convincing herself that when she finishes making this bomb for her father, he’ll let them go. Only, she knows he won’t. Because she’s not making a fusion bomb, and with the due date only 5 days away, it’s not looking like they’ll find a way to escape this hellhole before her father discovers the truth.  _

_ He’ll kill them for this and then what will have been the point? If they were only prolonging the inevitable, Felicity should have killed herself when she first learned her father’s plan. Then, she wouldn’t have been forced to build a weapon of mass destruction.  _

_ If she was going to die anyway, she would have been better off dying while she still had some of her morals intact.  _

_ There’s a knot in the pit of her stomach. It’s been there ever since she was first kidnapped 3 months ago. It’s only grown as she thinks about the destruction that is about to reign down on the world due to what she’s building. When she was first taken, she’d been a victim. With the completion of this weapon, she’ll no longer be able to claim that. She’ll be complicit.  _

_ She will become the problem.  _

_ She may not be building her father a fusion bomb, but with his own scientists and engineers looking over her plans carefully, she could only get away with so many alterations. She’d had to build  _ something _. And the something she’s building? It’s big... If it goes off, it may not destroy all of Israel and kill millions, but if it goes off in a major city? Thousands will die.  _

_ The sun begins to set outside. She can tell because the natural light coming in from the windows high above them dims and she is both relieved and terrified. The end of the day means Oliver’s torture has concluded for now, but it also means they are one day closer to the due date without a plan.  _

_ Time is not their friend and they need to figure out what to do sooner rather than later or a whole lot of people will die — themselves included.  _

_ She’s pulled to her feet and a rifle is jammed into her side as she’s ordered to walk back to her cell. The chains rattle behind her as they let Oliver go. He grunts in pain as he walks behind her, but she doesn't dare look back at him. Not yet. Not while they are still under supervision.  _

_ They walk down the long hallway until they reach the room where they are being held. Felicity steps into her cell. Oliver is practically shoved into his. She flinches as he falls to the ground with a painful thud. The metal gates of their cells slam shut and the locks click into place. She holds her breath until the guards leave, the heavy door shutting behind them. They are alone.  _

_ “Are you okay?” she asks, turning her head to look at him. She has to bite back a sob when she sees the blood running down the side of his face and fresh burns blistering across his chest.  _

_ He grunts as he struggles to his feet.  _

_ It breaks her heart to see him so weak. She’s seen him overcome a lot. A part of her liked to believe that nothing would ever be powerful enough to break him. But it’s not true.  _

_ This has broken him. Her father has broken him.  _

_ A man Oliver would have never met if it weren’t for her.  _

_ “I’m fine,” he says. _

_ She shakes her head, because she knows he’s lying. He can’t possibly be fine. He’s a mess. There’s no way that he’s going to be strong enough to get them out of this. It’s up to her, and she has nothing.  _

_ She’s always prided herself on her intelligence, but right now, when they need it most, it’s failing. She has no idea how they will survive this. A part of her doesn’t want to.  _

_ She doesn’t know how she’s supposed to go on the rest of her life living with the guilt of what’s happened to them. And if that bomb goes off? _

_ She would have been better off saying no from the beginning and letting her father kill her. If it had been only her — if Oliver’s and the girls’ lives weren’t being threatened — she would have let him.  _

_ “We only have four more days,” she says.  _

_ Oliver moves towards her, but she takes a step back. He’s trying to comfort her, but she doesn’t want him to. It fills her with deep shame that he’s the one consoling her each night. He’s the one that’s beaten down and bleeding, not her. _

_ She should be the strong one here, but she doesn’t know how.   _

_ “Felicity,” he says, putting his arm out to her through the metal bars. “Please.”  _

_ She backs up until she hits the wall, furthest from him and sinks down to the ground. She pulls her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them. Maybe if she can make herself small enough, the world will disappear and she won’t have to deal with this anymore. _

_ “We’re going to get through this,” Oliver tells her, but she doesn’t believe him anymore.  _

_ She buries her face in her knees and puts her hands to her ears to block him out as she sobs.   _

_ She’d once heard Sara say that there’s no escaping hell after you’ve danced with the devil. At the time, Felicity hadn’t believed her, but now she’s beginning to see just how right Sara had been. _

_ Even if they are to miraculously find their way out of this somehow, Felicity’s hands will never be clean again. This hell is going to follow her around for the rest of her life.  _

********

**2026**

Oliver steps into the bedroom he’s been sharing with Felicity and the girls, carrying four garment bags high so that they won’t drag on the floor. He can’t help but smile as Felicity doesn’t even look up from her spot on the bed. She’s surrounded by two open laptops, her tablet, phone, and a notebook, as she chews on the end of a pen, deep in thought. Instantly, he’s reminded of the first time they ever met, and it sends a wave of desire through him. 

He may not have fallen in love with Felicity on that day, but he can’t say he didn’t have a fleeting thought of pushing her up against that desk and seeing if she really was as innocent as she looked. Oliver’s never been immune to Felicity’s sex appeal, even if he spent the first few years of their relationship pretending otherwise. 

Oliver licks his lips as his fingers itch to pull her hair free of the messy ponytail it’s in and run his hands through it as he kisses her breathless. For the past five years, he’s considered it torture that he had to see her all the time but wasn’t allowed to touch her. But now that he has the green light from her and he  _ still _ can’t do anything about it because of a serious lack of privacy? It’s unbearable. He’s already had to jerk off multiple times this week in the shower just to be able to control himself around her. 

Her eyes briefly glance up at him before returning to the screen in front of her. 

“What’s that?” she asks. 

“Your dresses,” he says, moving to hang their garment bags on the back of the closet door. 

Felicity finally looks up, giving him her full attention. 

“Our dresses?” 

Oliver nods. “We’re getting dressed. Then you’re going to help Thea get ready and I’ll help Roy.” 

“I don’t understand,” she says, crawling off the bed to walk over to him. 

Standing in front of him in his oversized t-shirt that is slipping off her shoulder and those tight yoga pants that accentuate her ass in the most delicious ways, he is having a hard time not throwing her back down on the bed and having his way with her. If it weren’t for Thea’s wedding, he would say screw privacy and do just that. There’s only so much waiting he’s going to be able to handle. 

He stares at her hungrily while she unzips the first bag to find Grace’s  [ floor length burgundy gown ](http://www.jjshouse.com/A-Line-Princess-Scoop-Neck-Floor-Length-Chiffon-Junior-Bridesmaid-Dress-009097063-g97063) . She sends him a quizzical look before carefully laying the dress on the bed and unzipping the next garment back to find Ella’s  [ own burgundy gown ](http://www.jjshouse.com/A-Line-Princess-Scoop-Neck-Floor-Length-Chiffon-Lace-Junior-Bridesmaid-Dress-009081155-g81155) . 

“Why do you have the girls’ bridesmaid dresses?” Felicity asks. “I thought Thea called off the wedding.” 

“She did,” Oliver says, reaching out to pull her back against him. 

She let’s out a startled squeak before relaxing in his arms. He nuzzles into her neck, savoring the scent of lavender as he mouths at her pulse point. He feels her shudder against him and he can’t help but smile. It’s nice to know that time and distance hasn’t changed everything. He’s dying to get his hands on her body and see if he still knows all the places that make her scream. 

“What did you do?” Felicity asks, humming in delight as his hand makes it’s way under her shirt. He knows they don’t have time for this right now, but he can’t help himself. Especially when she arches back into him and her ass rubs against his growing erection. 

“You know she won’t forgive you if you drag her out of here kicking and screaming. The wedding isn’t secure,” she says, starting to sound breathless as his hand reaches her breast and he begins to rub her nipple through her bra. 

“I know,” he says, revealing in the way her entire body is responding to his touch. “Which is why we are having it here. Just us.” 

“Oliver…” she whines, and he’s never been able to say no to her when she sounds like that.

She reaches back to grab onto his neck and turns her head to meet him with a heated kiss. Her lips are firm and demanding and he’s all too willing to give himself over to her. His free hand goes up to her hair and pulls it free of her ponytail. He tosses the hair tie to the side and instantly returns his hand to run his fingers through her hair. When her tongue traces the seam of his lips, he opens his mouth for her. 

While he knows they need to stop before they get carried away and lose all track of time, he can’t bring himself to do it yet. Not when she tastes so good and his body is crying out in relief at having her against him where she belongs. He lets go of her breast and allows his hand to travel downward, desperate to know if she’s as turned on right now as he is. 

His hands pause at the waistband of her yoga pants, waiting for permission to touch her. 

Felicity pulls her lips away from his just long enough to cry out, “Please.” 

She releases her hold on his neck to pull the waistband of her pants away from her body and uses her other hand to grab his wrist and move his hand where she wants him the most. He’s always loved her confidence in the bedroom and how she’s never shied away from telling him exactly what she wants. He never thought he would like giving up control, but it’s different with her. He’s always been happy to hand her the reins and let her take charge. 

Her underwear is soaked and he can’t help the loud moan that he lets out. 

“Shh,” she says, giggling. “The kids will hear us.” 

Oliver buries his head in her neck to try and keep quiet as he pushes her underwear aside and runs his fingers through her wet folds. She bucks against him and he has to bite down on her neck to keep from crying out again.

“Oliver,” she whines, and he knows what she’s asking for. He wants to give it to her so badly, too. 

He wants to throw her down on the bed and tear off all of her clothes and make love to his wife for the first time in over five years. 

But then he’s reminded of the time constraints and while he could easily bring them both to a quick orgasm and still have plenty of time to get ready for the wedding, he doesn’t want to do this quick and dirty. He wants to take his time with her. He wants to have her crying out in pleasure for hours on end to make up for every single time he’s wanted to be with her before and couldn’t. 

He wants her to remember exactly why they are so good together so that she won’t ever question her decision to take him back. 

And to do everything he wants to do, they need time. 

He pulls his hand out of her pants, reluctantly. She catches his wrist quickly. 

“No,” she whispers, breathless. 

“There’s not enough time,” he says, hating himself for doing this, but he knows it’s the right thing to do. 

“I don’t care. We’ll have all the time in the world later. We both want this now,” she says, pushing back against his erection to prove her point. 

“Felicity,” he says, gritting his teeth to stop himself from reaching out and touching her again. His desire for her is painful, and it would be so easy to just give in. But they both deserve more than a rushed fuck against the closet door. 

He pulls his hand out of her wrist and turns her around so that she’s facing him and no longer able to dig her ass against him and tempt him further. Her cheeks are flushed and her hair's a mess, but what stops his breath is the way her pupils are blown so wide that her eyes are nearly black. 

How long did he believe he would never see her look at him like this again?

“Tonight,” he says, the words leave his mouth before he even thinks them through. 

“Tonight?” she asks, her voice full of hope. 

And that’s what cements it for him. He has no plan. No idea how to give them both time tonight to be together, but he’ll figure it out. Because they’ve been apart for years and he refuses to wait another day. 

“I promise,” he says, giving her a soft kiss, pulling away before it can become anything more. “Tonight we’ll find time to be together.”

“Okay,” she says, smiling up at him. “It’s a date.” 

“A date date?” he teases her and she instantly catches on and laughs. 

“Sure, I mean, the implication being with date that you give me multiple,  _ multiple _ orgasms to make up for the one you just denied me.” 

“I’m more than up to that challenge,” he says. “Now, let’s get ready before I change my mind and decide to forget the wedding and stay locked in this room with you instead.” 

She looks like she’s about to respond that he should, so he quickly adds, “Not an option. Thea is getting married tonight and we will both be there.” 

Felicity sighs pretending to look incredibly put out, but he knows she’s just teasing him. 

She reaches up to take Ella’s dress down and lay it on the bed before turning back to the next garment bag. “It’s a really nice thing you’re doing for Thea.” 

“Yeah, well, she deserves it,” he says with a shrug. “I know it won’t exactly be the wedding of her dreams, but her family will be here and that’s really all that matters. Right?”

She nods and unzips her own bag, sending him a knowing look once she sees the  [ black, floor length gown ](http://www.starrydress.com/cheap-Variable-Aline-Chiffon-Black-Sleeveless-Halter-Empire-Ruched-Floor-Length-Prom-Dressbridesmaid-Dress-Ml-7121-p-413863.html) .

“You picked out a dress for me?” she asks. 

“Lyla sent me some options…” he says, hoping she’s okay with the choice he made for her. 

He’s always liked her in chiffon, ever since she’d worn that pink dress to his mother’s welcome home party. He’s seen her in a lot of dresses over the years, and she’s always gorgeous, but there’s something about her in these particular dresses that gets him. The fit is elegant and beautiful while soft and effortless. 

“And you went with black,” she teases. 

“Well, I was worried about colors clashing. You know how Thea is,” he says, hoping he didn’t do anything wrong. Perhaps he should have let her pick out her own dress. He just hadn’t wanted to bother her with how focused she’s been on her research and thought it might be a nice surprise. 

“Well that’s fair. I love Thea, but she’s a bit of a bridezilla,” she says. 

Oliver can’t argue with her on that. The reason Thea has been able to put on successful charity events for him for years is because she’s incredibly anal about every last detail. She knows what she wants and she makes sure she gets it. She’s a lot like their mom in that way. 

It’s why he knows, no matter what she might have said, she didn’t really want to cancel her wedding. Not after she’d put so much work into making sure every detail was just right. 

“You didn’t also happen to bring up some makeup and jewelry for us, did you?” she asks. 

“You don’t need it,” he says, which only causes Felicity to chuckle.

“You’re really angling for it, aren’t you?” she says, playfully hip checking him as she takes her bag off the closet and folds it over her hands. “You’re already getting lucky tonight. You don’t need to feed me lines.”

“What if they aren’t lines?” he asks, cradling her face with his hands.

“Then I’d say maybe you’re getting old and need glasses,” she says. “I’m not as young as I once was. You may want to think about trading me in for a younger model.”

Despite the teasing he can hear in her tone that there's a hint of truth to her words. She’s self-conscious, and for the life of him he can’t understand why.

“You’re as beautiful now as you were back then,” he says, placing a kiss to the top of her head.

“We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one,” she says as she moves away from him to grab her things for the shower. 

“Give me a few hours to get through this wedding, then I’ll prove to you just how true my words are.” 

****

“You didn’t have to do all of this,” Thea says, looking stunning in [ their grandmother’s old wedding dress ](http://inkdress.com/gallery/1285/) that she’d had redone. 

They are standing just inside the doors to the outside garden, waiting for the music to start so they can walk down the aisle.

“Of course I did,” Oliver tells her, pulling her in for a careful hug, mindful of her dress. “I love you so much.” 

“I wish Mom and Dad could have been here,” she says, her eyes welling with tears, causing her to wave at her face in an effort to keep her makeup from running. Oliver pulls out a handkerchief from his jacket and gently tilts her face in his direction so that he can wipe her tears away and save her makeup. 

“They would have been really proud of you,” he says, feeling himself getting choked up as well. It’s been years since they died, but Oliver always finds their deaths never feel fresher than when they miss an important life event. 

“You look beautiful,” he tells her, before pocketing the handkerchief and turning back towards the doors. 

“What about us?” Grace asks as Ella picks up the skirt of her dress and twirls around, giggling as it poofs out around her. 

They both look far older than their years with their hair done up with flowers in it and makeup on their faces. He can’t decide if he likes it or not. As radiant as they both look, it’s a reminder that they won’t be his baby girls for much longer. He’d tried to fight Felicity on their makeup, but she insisted that just because she put some light lipstick on them and some mascara, it didn’t mean that they were going to run off and start dating tomorrow. 

He’d relented, because he’s smart enough to know not to get into an argument with the love of his life on the night he’s planning on having sex with her, but the thought of his girls dating has lingered and he doesn’t like it. 

“It’s a good thing Roy’s about to become your uncle so that I’ll have some backup when the boys start knocking on our door,” he says, causing Grace to roll her eyes. 

“I’m eight, Dad,” she says. “And boys are gross.” 

“I don’t know,” Thea says wistfully. “Boys are pretty great sometimes.”

“No, Thea,” Oliver says, glaring at her playfully. “Boys are gross.” 

“If your dad is even half as bad with the boys you bring home as he was for me, I feel sorry for you,” Thea says with a laugh. “Your dad used to hate Roy.” 

“You hated Uncle Roy?” Ella asks, stopping her twirling long enough to look at him like he was crazy. “Why?” 

“Because he was a punk who wasn’t good enough for my little sister,” he says. 

“And now?” Thea asks. 

“Now he’s still a punk, but he’s better than some of the other guys you used to bring around,” he says. 

“Fair enough,” Thea says. 

Outside the doors, they hear the music key up and Thea gets a look of panic on her face as she realizes that it’s time. Oliver reaches out to place a soothing hand on her back, which seems to ground her.

“Remember, don’t walk too fast,” Thea tells Ella as she reaches up to open the door to the garden. “It’s not a race.” 

“I know,” Ella says. “Daddy made us practice it like a hundred million times.” 

Oliver rolls his eyes at the exaggeration. They’d practiced it a total of three times, and the third time was only because Roy decided they needed to change the song last minute. 

“A hundred million? Wow,” Thea laughs. “Well, I guess you’re an expert walker now.” 

“Yeah,” Ella says with a nod before turning back to the door as the music is about to reach her cue. 

“Wait… What if I fall?” she asks, turning back to them with wide eyes. 

“Then everyone will laugh,” Grace says. 

“Grace…” Oliver says with a warning tone before turning to Ella. “If you fall, you get back up and keep walking. It’s the Queen motto.” 

Ella smiles and pushes the door open and begins her walk down the aisle. Once Grace steps out into the garden to begin her walk, Oliver looks behind him to where he knows that Walter is hanging back, waiting to surprise Thea. Oliver nods to signal that it’s time. 

“May I cut in?” Walter asks, stepping up to them and surprising so much that Thea almost loses her footing.

“Oh my god!” she exclaims, throwing her arms around Walter and hugging him tight. 

Oliver can’t help but smile. Of all the guests that they couldn’t have at the wedding for safety reasons, Walter had been the one he knew Thea would miss the most. He had been planning on walking Thea down the aisle as he was the closest thing to a father figure she still had. Which was why, of all the guests outside of Team Arrow, Walter was the only one Oliver invited tonight. 

“What are you doing here?” Thea asks once she pulls away from him. Oliver reaches behind her to help her fix the train of her dress that had become messed up. 

“Oliver called me after you told me the wedding had been postponed and explained the entire situation. I got here about an hour ago,” he says. 

“Oliver… Thank you,” Thea says, her eyes starting to water again. 

He knows how much this means to her. Walter had been there for her at a time when nobody else had. When the Gambit went down, their mother had been so overwhelmed with grief that Thea had been all but alone. Walter really took her under his wing and helped her out, and for that Oliver has always respected the man, even if Oliver himself has never been able to see Walter as a substitute for their father.

“Don’t cry,” Oliver tells her with a smile. “It’s almost time to walk down the aisle.” 

“Oh god, what if  _ I _ fall?” Thea asks, her eyes going wide much like Ella’s just had. 

“Then everyone will laugh,” he teases, earning him a rather painful punch to the shoulder.

“I won’t let you fall,” Walter assures her, holding out his arm for her to take. 

“I’ll see you down there,” Oliver says, giving her one last good luck before slipping out the door and quickly walking along the edge of the garden. He steps in next to Roy at the makeshift altar just as Grace reaches the altar and takes her spot. 

“Did she like her surprise?” Roy asks, his eyes trained on the doors at the back where he’s waiting for Thea to walk out. 

“Loved it,” he says as the music changes and the doors at the back open up to reveal Thea and Walter. 

Oliver can’t help but smile at Roy’s gasp of breath as he sees Thea in her wedding dress for the first time. He reaches out to pat him on the back, remembering how he had nearly passed out at his own wedding because he’d forgotten how to breathe at the sight of Felicity in her dress. As funny as it would be to see Roy faint, he knows Thea would prefer it if he remained upright. 

Oliver glances over to the small row of chairs they’d set up in the candle-lit garden and finds Felicity staring back at him with a knowing smile. They are both remembering their own wedding, and how they’d been so overwhelmed with emotion that she’d gone on an epic babble during the middle of her vows and his hands were shaking so badly he had actually dropped her ring. 

Still, it had been perfect. That night he’d promised to love her until his dying breath, and despite everything they’ve been through since then, he’s never once broken that promise. He can’t wait to prove that to her tonight. 

‘Later,’ he mouths to her, causing her cheeks to flush as she rolls her eyes and turns back to watch Thea walk down the aisle. He can see by the way she’s biting her lower lip, however, that her attention isn’t on Thea and rather what he’ll be doing with her tonight. 

He takes one last longing glance at her, before turning back to watch Thea. As much as he would love to spend the entire ceremony drinking in Felicity’s body in the dress he’d picked out specifically for her, he also wants to enjoy his little sister’s wedding. Knowing how in love Roy and Thea are and everything they’ve already been through together, he’s entirely confident with his assessment that they are going to make it last. She’s only going to get married the once and he doesn't want to miss a second of it.

****

Felicity holds her heels and a bottle of champagne in one hand and two glasses in her other as she makes her way upstairs to the bedroom. Oliver is downstairs saying his final goodbyes to Roy and Thea. They are leaving for a weekend at an ARGUS safe house in Coast City in order to give them some semblance of a honeymoon. The girls had left with Donna and Quentin a few hours ago, to stay at the Diggle’s safe house. Oliver had personally escorted them to make sure that they arrived safely.

She knows having the girls away, even for a night, is giving Oliver just as much anxiety as it is her. The Order is still out there and after them, but as her mom told her: It’ll be good for them to have a night off. The girls have been having nightmares on and off since their attempted kidnapping, and her mom blames it on the stress in the house. Felicity had been reluctant to let the girls go when her mom had first offered to watch them tonight, but she had told Felicity the best thing she could do for her daughters was to try to relax and forget about the Order for a night.  

So Felicity had agreed and tried to let go of the fear that something terrible would happen to them while they were away. 

Donna Smoak may not have a degree from MIT, but Felicity has come to learn that she’s almost always right in situations like this. 

Felicity sets the glasses down on the night stand and tosses her shoes towards the closet. She then tears at the foil on the champagne bottle to reveal the cork. 

“Are you telling me you’ve finally gotten over your fear of opening those?” Oliver asks, startling her enough to jump. 

She glares at him for scaring her with his ninja skills, which only causes him to laugh. 

“Teasing me isn’t going to win you any points,” she says as she points the bottle away from her and closes her eyes as she pushes tentatively at the cork. 

Oliver comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her, covering her hands with his own. 

“You need to give it more pressure,” he says into her ear playfully.

She tenses up as he forces her to push harder at the cork. She’s always hated opening champagne bottles, ever since she’d been hit with a cork during a New Year’s Eve party at MIT. His lips find her neck and she turns to putty in his arms, barely noticing as the cork goes flying across the room and champagne flows out of the bottle onto their hands. 

She’s been itching for him ever since he’d teased her earlier, leaving her wet and unsatisfied. All evening, he’s been whispering into her ear the things he plans to do to her, making sure that she has been on edge for every second of the reception till now. 

Now that he’s got his hands on her, her patience is gone. 

“Oliver,” she says, pushing back against him to urge him to touch her, but he doesn’t move. 

“Oliver,” she whines, not even caring that she sounds like a child. He doesn’t get to tease her. Not after she’s had to put up with it all night. 

“We don’t need to rush,” he tells her. 

She scoffs. It’s hardly rushing by this point. She’s been wet for hours. Really, by now denying her anything is just cruel and unusual punishment. He kisses his way up her neck and nibbles at her ear, causing her knees to go weak. 

“We’ve got time,” he says, stepping back from her and she actually whimpers at the loss of his heat against her body. It sends goosebumps down her spine. 

“Drink up,” he says, handing her a full glass of champagne that she hadn’t even realized he’d poured.

“A+ for multitasking, Mr. Queen,” she says, smirking at the way he growls at her. He used to always get so worked up whenever she would refer to him so formally in the bedroom. She’s glad to see some of her old tricks still work. It won’t do for him to have all of the power tonight… If she lets him, she knows he’ll make her wait hours before getting her off. 

She takes a seat on the bed and takes a sip from her glass. Oliver steps towards her, but she puts out her foot to stop his progress. His hand grabs her ankle and starts caressing it. 

“You think you get to tease me all night then just get into bed with me?” she asks, arching an eyebrow at him, trying to pretend like she’s got some semblance of control over the situation. 

“That’s exactly what I think,” he says. 

Before she realizes what is happening, he tugs on her ankle, pulling her to the edge of the bed and drops to his knees in front of her. She sucks in a breath as she watches his eyes turn black with want. He pulls her dress up, caressing her leg, then her thigh. She pulls her lip in between her teeth to hold back a moan as he finally reaches her hips.

“Lay back,” he instructs and she does what he asks without argument, knowing exactly where this is leading. 

The room feels like a thousand degrees all of a sudden. She breathes heavily as a low burn starts in the pit of her stomach at the anticipation of his touch. Apart from his teasing earlier today, it’s been years since anyone else has touched her there and she’s embarrassed with how badly she wants it. He has to be able to smell her sex because she’s soaked. He hasn’t even touched her yet.

He pulls on her hips until they are just barely off the edge of the bed and drapes one of her legs over his shoulder as he forces her to spread open for him. 

“Please,” she says, her voice shakier than she would like, but then, he’s always been able to get that reaction out of her. 

He leaves open mouth kisses along the inside of her thighs before pulling back and blowing on her, causing her entire body to shake. 

“Oliver…” she says, her voice cracking. “Please.” 

“Tell me what you want,” he demands, his voice low and gravely, letting her know he’s just as affected by all of this as she is. 

This is more than just sex for them. It’s reconnecting. It’s reaffirming a promise of forever that had been broken years ago. 

“I need you,” she says, reaching out a hand for him. 

He takes her wrist and leaves a kiss at her palm while shaking his head. “Not yet. I want to make sure you’re ready first,” he says. 

She looks at him, completely unimpressed. He’s done everything in his power to make sure that she’s been ready for hours. 

“Trust me,” she says. “I’m ready.” 

He puts his mouth over her through her underwear and begins sucking at her. She cries out and grabs onto the comforter as shocks of pleasure make their way through her body. 

“That you are,” he pulls back, a smug look on his face.

She picks up a pillow from the bed and hits him over the head with it. “I don’t remember you being this mean.” 

He laughs, taking the pillow from her and placing it under his knees. 

“Then you must be remembering wrong,” he says. “Don’t you remember me teasing you for hours? Pulling you to the edge and then stopping, just so I could build you back up? Do you remember how you used to tremble with need? How, when I finally did let you come, you’d nearly black out from the pleasure?” 

Vivid memories come back to her as she unconsciously begins rocking her hips towards him, trying to find relief. 

Yes, she most definitely remembers those nights. She’s pretty sure Ella was conceived after one of those nights. She’s spent a lot of time and money over the last few years searching for the perfect vibrator, thanks to incredibly evocative dreams of those nights. 

“I thought somebody promised me multiple orgasms tonight,” she whines. As great as those nights were… and they were pretty spectacular… If Oliver makes her wait much longer to get off, she may actually combust.

“That I did,” he says.

He hooks his fingers into her underwear and slowly pull them off of her body. As the cool breeze hits her, she can’t help but moan. 

“I love you in lace,” he tells her, holding her black lace underwear up to look at for a minute before tossing them over his shoulder in the general direction of the closet. 

“I remember,” she says, smiling down at him as he runs his hands up and down her thigh. “I was going to wear the matching bra for you, but it didn’t go with my dress.” 

“Yes, that dress,” he says in his Arrow-voice that sends another wave of heat right to her core. “I deeply regret that dress.”

“Oh yeah? It didn’t look like you regretted it? In fact, I’m pretty sure you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself,” she says, teasing him for the fact that he’s had his hands all over her bare back for most of the night. 

“Which is why I regret that dress,” he says. “I should have dressed you up like a nun.”

Felicity laughs at that, feeling lighter than she has in a long time. 

“I’ve missed your laugh,” he says, placing a kiss to the inside of her knee. 

“Yeah?” she asks.

He nods. “Among other things.” 

“What other things have you missed?” she asks, going a bit breathless as his fingers inch higher and higher, making their way towards where she wants him the most. 

“Let’s see,” he says, pulling back from her to tap his chin in thought. She rocks her hips in his direction, until he takes the hint and resumes his progress up her body. 

“I’ve missed your smile when I come home from work,” he says, placing a kiss to her other knee. “Kisses against my shoulder when we’re in public and you want to kiss me but you don’t want to be one of those couples.” 

“Those couples are the worse,” she says, her breath hitching as his fingers begin to trace the part where her thighs meet her pelvic bone. 

“I’ve missed your late night kisses to my chest when you think that I’m asleep,” he says, leaving open mouth kisses up her thigh as he continues his featherlight touches to her pelvic bone so close to where she desperately needs him. But every time she moves to get him to touch her, he moves further away and starts over. 

She bites her lip to stop herself from calling him an ass. She knows it will only get him to delay the entire process even longer. 

“I’ve missed early mornings, waking you up with my mouth,” he says, blowing lightly against her clit and causing her entire back to arch up off the bed. 

“Fuck,” she says. “Oliver, please.”

“You asked for a list,” he says, chuckling at her reaction. “It could take me all night…” 

“Screw the list,” she whines. “I need you.” 

Oliver smiles up at her, looking at her with such love in his eyes that it makes her heart melt. This is the man she loves. This is the reason she’s fought so hard to get better. She wanted to be worthy of that look. And while she’s still not entirely sure she is, he believes she is. And isn’t that what’s important in the end? 

“Just one more,” he says. 

“Fine,” she pretends to grumble in annoyance and throws herself back on the bed. 

He reaches out for her wrists and pulls her until she’s sitting up and looking at him. 

“I’ve missed this,” he says, his eyes suspiciously wet. “Not because of the sex… Although we’re incredibly good at it. But I’ve missed being close to you. Knowing that you trust me with the most personal parts of you… I promise you, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you don’t regret taking me back.” 

“Oliver,” she whispers, her voice breaking, and she hadn’t realized she had started crying until Oliver reaches up to wipe away a few fallen tears. “You don’t have anything to prove to me. I was the one that messed up, not you.” 

“It doesn’t matter,” he says smiling down at her. “Because we’re here now.”

“Yeah,” she says, pulling at his shirt until he raises up on his knees and he’s close enough to kiss. 

As their lips meet, it starts out slow and harmless. A quick peck followed by another. Then another. Felicity drags his suspenders down his arms and he pulls them free before raising his hands to cradle her face. Their kisses become longer and peppered now with a brush of his tongue against her lower lip as she begins unbuttoning his shirt. Both of them have far too many clothes on for her liking. 

She bites gently at his lower lip and the low moan he lets out is all the encouragement she needs. She inches her tongue forward and he willingly opens his mouth to let her in. Letting her relearn every part of him. It’s a strange mix of familiar and new and it’s intoxicating. 

Her tongue wraps around his and his hand fists into her hair, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss as a her stomach bubbles with anticipation of what is to come. 

It’s been so long since she’s allowed herself to have this, but now she can’t imagine ever letting go. Oliver has this amazing ability to make her feel both safe and loved while also making her feel incredibly sexy. 

“I love you so much,” he says, pulling away from her to catch his breath for a moment and she takes that opportunity to push his dress shirt off of his shoulders and pull his T-shirt over his head, leaving him deliciously shirtless. 

Before she has a chance to reach out and trace his abs with her tongue, he leans forward and kisses down her neck. 

“I love you, too,” she says, moaning as he finds her pulse point. 

His hands go to her back and she can feel him pulling at the fabric of the dress in various places, clearly looking for a zipper that he won’t find. She laughs as his hands fall to the bed in frustration. 

“I was teasing before, but now I really do regret getting you this dress,” he grumbles. “It’s like a fucking straight jacket. How did you even get it on?” 

She laughs at that, pushing him away from her so that she can stand up. He falls back onto his heels and watches her as she turns her back to him. She reaches behind herself for the tie at her back and begins to unknot it. Once it’s free, she unwraps the fabric from her waist before his hands swat her away. 

“Let me,” he whispers, and she can hear the desire in his voice. He’s standing at her back, and she knows if she were to lean back, she would feel him straining against his pants. 

He places wet kisses to her shoulder blades as he slowly untwists the fabric until the straps finally fall from her shoulders, leaving her completely bare from the waist up. The cold air hits her exposed breasts and she can’t help but moan. 

From behind, Oliver’s hands make their way up her stomach until they reach her breasts. He grabs them with both hands and begins kneading her. She lets her head fall back against his shoulder. 

“Sorry, I know they aren’t as perky as they once were…” she apologizes, knowing that he’d always had a fascination with her breasts; cognizant of the fact that he hasn’t seen her naked for years and the last time he had, she was breastfeeding Ella. She’s not nearly as large as she was then, and gravity hasn’t done her any favors — age and motherhood have wreaked havoc on her body. 

“Stop that,” he says, pulling at her nipples in retaliation. “You’re as beautiful now as you ever were then.” 

She shakes her head. He has no idea. He hasn’t seen her in years. Not since Syria and Israel. He doesn’t know how scared she really is. He’s seen the scars on her wrists from being bound for so long. And by now he will have seen the lashes on her back because her dress hadn’t really hidden them from view… But it’s one thing to see scars in isolation. It’s something else entirely to see them all together at once. They paint a traumatizing picture. 

Suddenly she doubts what they are doing. She can’t have sex with Oliver. He’ll see her and what if he doesn’t like what he sees? He’s so protective over her; what if all her scars do is send him into another guilt spiral. 

It’s one thing for her to accept all of his scars. She’s never known any differently. She didn’t know him before his body was littered with the horrors of his past. But Oliver has. Oliver knew her when the only scar she had was from her wisdom teeth getting pulled out. When they first got together, he used to spend nights in bed tracing her bullet wound from Tockman and apologizing profusely for getting her involved in his lifestyle. 

He can’t find her beautiful like this. Her body is nothing but a reminder of all of the horrible things they’d been through. A reminder of all the ways he couldn’t save her. 

She turns around in his arms and places her hands against his chest, sufficiently hiding herself from his view and shakes her head. 

“Hey… Hey,” he says, trying to pull her away from him, but she won’t let him. “It’s okay.” 

“It’s not okay,” she whispers. “I’m not that girl you fell in love with.” 

“I thought I already told you I don’t need you to be that girl,” he says. “I love the you that’s in front of me right now.” 

She knows it’s irrational. Really, of all people, Oliver isn’t the one that’s going to run away screaming because of a few scars. But she can’t help but feel scared at the thought of baring her body to him in that way. He’ll be the first person apart from her doctor to have seen her body since coming home and that thought makes the carefully built house of cards she’s made for them feel like it’s about to come toppling down.

It’s crazy. Barely a few minutes ago, she’d been so lost in her lust that she hadn’t even thought twice about it. She’d actively been taking off her dress for him. 

“Felicity,” he says, wrapping his arms around her and rubbing her back as she begins to shiver in the cool air. “You are the sexiest woman I know. I don’t care if you have some wrinkles around your eyes that you didn’t used to. Or that you have a few grey hairs—” 

She gasps and pulls back just enough to hit him in his chest. “I do not.” 

“I don’t care that you have a few more scars, or that your body has changed after you had the girls,” he continues on, completely ignoring her. “You are still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“You’re just saying that,” she says. 

“Do you think I’m any less attractive than I was back then?” he asks. “I’ve got several more grey hairs than you do, and I’m starting to get some laugh lines of my own.” 

“Of course not,” she says. 

“Then why would I think any differently of you?” he asks, gently pushing at her until she steps away from him, but she doesn’t move her hands from where they are currently covering her breasts. 

“Because it’s different for men,” she says. “And you’ve still got the body of a Greek God. I could bounce quarters off of your abs…” 

“And you’ve still got curves for days,” he says, leaning in to silence her protest with a kiss. “Curves which you got bearing my lovely children… And the scars that you have? You got saving my life… There isn’t any part of you that I’m not going to love and defend, so you may as well stop now.” 

She huffs out an annoyed breath as he pulls at her wrists until her arms fall to her sides and he can see her fully. He drinks in every inch of her and she watches as his eyes grow impossibly darker and he licks his lips. 

She can’t help but blush at his stare, but accepts that he believes his words and finds her attractive.  

“Can we get back to having sex now?” he asks, his fingers clearly itching to reach out and touch. “Because we’re both half naked and I haven’t been allowed to touch you for five years. Which, in case you are wondering, is five years too many.” 

“Yeah,” she says with a nod, opening her arms for him and he doesn’t need any more of an invitation than that. 

He wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her up on her toes until she’s flush against him and he begins mouthing at her neck, his scruff scratching her skin and sending sparks through her body. She wraps her arms around his neck for better leverage and he walks her backwards until her knees hit the bed and they both fall into it. 

“Oliver,” she moans as she feels his length against her. 

His hands pull at her dress, trying to tug it down off of her hips without having to move off of her, which presents him quite a challenge, but she can’t be bothered to help because, at that exact moment, his lips find their way to her breast. 

“Oh god!” she cries out, glad that the kids are away and the house is empty, because there’s no way she’d be able to stay quiet tonight. 

Her knees go up to brace Oliver’s hips, opening herself up to him and thankfully, allowing the skirt of her dress to pool at her waist so Oliver no longer has to struggle to reach her. His hands go to her ass and pull her closer to him, rubbing against her and ruining his dress pants. She’s never going to be able to look their dry cleaner in the eye after this, but she doesn’t care.

They can find a new dry cleaner for all she cares right now, so long as Oliver doesn’t stop what he’s doing. 

“More,” she cries out as Oliver pulls on her nipple with his teeth and drags himself along her folds. 

“God, you’re so sexy,” he says, licking his way to her other breast.

“Pants off,” she orders, blindly reaching for his belt. As good as he feels against her now, she knows it’s nothing compared to how he’ll feel inside of her. 

She fumbles with his belt, struggling to get it off while she’s still rutting against him and he’s still flicking his tongue against her nipple.

“Oliver,” she whines and thankfully he takes pity on her. 

He pulls back, sitting up on his knees. He undoes his belt quickly and unbuttons his pants as she shimmies the rest of the way out of her dress, tossing it carelessly to the side. At this point, it’s going to have to be dry cleaned regardless, so she doesn’t really care about hanging it up. How could she, when she has a nearly naked Oliver in front of her. 

His hands pauses as she lays back down on the bed, completely naked and she hears him suck in a breath. 

“You’re the most beautiful thing in the world,” he whispers, and it’s so quiet that she’s not even sure if he intended her to hear him or not, but she does. It sends a blush through her whole body, which only causes him to moan. 

He leans over until he’s on his hands and knees and places several open mouth kisses to her stomach, then her hips until finally he’s at her center. 

“Oliver—” she whines, not in the mood for any more teasing when she feels like every cell in her body is about to explode, but thankfully he seems to be done with the teasing as well. He goes right in, sucking at her clit and causing her to moan loudly as shocks of pleasure spread from her center and through the rest of her body, causing her to writhe uncontrollably.

“God, you taste just as good as I remember,” he says, licking a strip through her folds before flicking at her clit, causing her to cry out again. “I can’t believe I get to have this again…” 

Felicity reaches down and grabs onto his hair, needing to make sure that he doesn’t move away in an attempt to tease her again. She won’t survive. She needs him. 

“Yes,” she calls out, feeling tears of relief fall from her eyes as Oliver’s finger makes its way through her folds and begins pumping her as he sucks at her clit. 

She’s been aching all night for this. Longer, if she’s being honest with herself. She’s been on edge ever since their first kiss, needing to have him close again. Needing to get off together to prove to herself that this is real. This is really happening. 

He adds a second finger and she moans loudly. She’s been on edge so long that she knows she isn’t going to last long. Not if he keeps up the relentless pace he’s using. She can already feel herself building up to an orgasm, but she doesn't want to come. Not without him inside of her. 

“Oliver, please,” she pulls at his hair. He removes his mouth, but his fingers continue pumping into her. 

“Yes?” he asks, smiling up at her knowing exactly what he’s doing to her.

His fingers hook against that magic spot inside of her that makes her scream. Why has he always been so good at that when every guy she’d ever been with before could never make her come from their fingers alone. Somehow she highly doubts the tracking skills he learned on Lian Yu for hunting down criminals applies to finding her G-spot, but yet, here they are.

“I don’t want to come…” She has to pause as his fingers go particularly deep that time and she can’t help but yell out a profanity. She releases his hair and rubs at her face, trying to force herself to calm down before she comes undone. She doesn’t want to come. Not yet. 

She tries again, “I want to come with you inside of me.” 

“You will,” he says. “I have strict orders to give you multiple orgasms.” 

There’s a satisfied smirk on his face and she so wants to retaliate. She wants to tease him back, but she can’t. Not when her entire body starts writhing under him and she can feel the pleasure reach that point where it’s almost painful and her mind loses all ability to think. 

“Harder,” she says, her head moving back and forth as her hands reach out for anything to grab onto. The comforter. The pillow. Finally the headboard. Yes. The headboard will do nicely. It gives her enough leverage to begin pushing back down against Oliver’s fingers as he leans over to begin licking and sucking at her clit again. 

“Yes! Oh god! Oliver! Faster!” she cries as he adds a third finger. 

She doesn’t last more than another second or two before her walls began spasming around him and her head falls back against the pillow as her vision goes completely white. Oliver strokes her through it, until his touch becomes too much and she has to shove his hand away from her as she struggles to catch her breath. 

“We’re not done yet,” he says, and she can’t see him because she refuses to open her eyes right now, but she can hear how satisfied he is with himself in his voice. 

She feels the mattress move under her and hears the rustling of fabric, so she assumes he’s finally taking off his pants. Good. Those pants are evil and have been hiding him from her all day. 

She blindly reaches out and makes grabby hands at him, wanting to cuddle with him for a little bit before they go for another round, but Oliver must have other ideas, because he wastes no time in laying back on top of her and rubbing his hard dick at her entrance, causing her to whimper as her walls spasm painfully. 

“Not yet,” she says, barely prying her eyes open to look at him. She’s tired and her entire body feels like Jell-O. She hasn’t come that hard since… Well, since the last time they had sex, if she’s being honest with herself. She’s never able to get herself off as well as he can. Her fingers aren’t long enough and toys never feel as good as the real thing. 

“Come on, Babe,” he says, leaning in to give her a wet and dirty kiss, full of teeth and tongue, that had her aching for more. 

She opens her legs up and pulls him in closer, while still protesting, “Five more minutes.”

She knows he’s right. Once she can push past the initial discomfort of being overstimulated, the pleasure will be well worth it and the orgasm will make her deliciously numb all over. And just feeling him brushing against her entrance is causing heat to pool in her belly once more. 

“I’ve missed you,” she says, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for another kiss. 

She reaches between them and grabs hold of his dick, amused by the impressive string of profanities it causes him to utter. 

“It would appear you missed me, too,” she says. 

“I think we’ve already established that,” he says through gritted teeth, and she knows he’s working hard to maintain control. 

“I wasn’t talking to you,” she teases. She presses on his shoulder until he rolls them both over and she can straddle his thighs. 

She begins to move towards the end of the bed so that she can taste him, but he sits up faster than she can blink and pulls at her hips until she’s flush against him. 

“Oliver!” she lets out a surprised gasp. 

“We can do that later, right now I just want to be inside of you,” he says. 

Normally, she would tease him about being patient and give him a hard time about how long he’d made her wait for that very thing, but she can see the desperation in his eyes. He needs her and she isn’t about to be the one to deny him anything. Not after she’s the one that imposed their five year separation on him. 

She nods, moving around so that she was better straddling him. She wraps her arms around his neck for leverage and begins rubbing herself against him. 

“Yes,” he cries out, burying his head in her neck. “More... Need you… Feel good… Shit…” 

He can barely put two coherent words together and he’s not even inside of her yet. 

“Condom,” she says and he shakes his head. 

“I’m clean.” 

She remembers back to their conversation in the stairwell of Eichmann’s hotel in which she found out that Oliver hadn’t been with anyone during the entirety of their divorce. Neither has she, but still… They haven’t talked about this part. They haven’t talked about their future and where they see themselves. She has no idea what Oliver is thinking. 

“I’m not on the pill,” she tells him. She hasn’t been since they started trying to get pregnant with Ella years ago. After everything that happened... There wasn’t really a point for her to go back on it until now. 

“Oh,” he says, lifting his head to look at her in surprise. “Is that… I mean I never really planned on… But…” 

“Usually I’m the one talking in sentence fragments,” she says, trying to lighten the mood, and it works, because he chuckles. 

“Except we both know you have the power to turn me into a bumbling idiot,” he says. “I wasn’t really planning on having this conversation now, but I guess we need to…” 

“Only if you don’t have any condoms,” she says, and the blush in his cheeks is answer enough. 

“I had some in my wallet, but I threw them away when Roy told me they expire,” he says. “I figured I’d buy new ones if ever the time came again, but it’s not like I’ve had the chance to run to CVS since we got back together.” 

He looks so disappointed and she gets that. If they don’t get to have sex today, she’ll be pretty upset too. 

“I’m pretty sure I’m not ovulating, so we’re probably okay,” she says, biting her lip, hoping that he agrees.  

“Yeah?” he asks, looking at her hopefully. 

“I mean it’s hardly a foolproof method, but… It’s not like I’m that concerned either way,” she admits and is rewarded with a huge smile on his part. 

“Yeah?” 

She shrugs. “Well the first two kids you gave me were pretty adorable so a third one would be too.” 

“So you want another kid?” he asks, and she doesn’t have to ask him about his own feelings, she can see it all over his face. He wants another baby with her. That idea should frighten her. They’ve only just gotten back together. They haven’t even defined their relationship yet. Earlier this evening Walter had asked her about Oliver and she had ended up in a rather embarrassing babble because he didn’t know if she should call Oliver her husband, her boyfriend, or what? She refuses to call him a lover because that word always creeps her out…

They should not be talking about kids right now. 

Except, it’s not the most terrible idea. She really wouldn’t mind another kid – especially if it was a boy. She’s always wanted to have a son to balance out all the girls in the house. 

“We should probably talk about it again sometime when we’re not naked, and when our relationship is a more defined. And when the Order hasn’t chased us into hiding… But yeah? At some point?” 

Oliver nods. “I’d like that, too… I guess that means we should wait.” 

Felicity shakes her head. The thought of having to wait another second to have him inside of her is agonizing. She needs him more than should be humanly possible. 

“No. No more waiting. We’ve waited long enough.” 

“Felicity—” 

“Oliver, I’m supposed to get my period next week. I’m sure we’re fine,” she says, and just to make sure that he doesn’t try to argue with her any more, she rubs herself against his length and smiles when it starts to harden again.

“Are you sure?” he asks, closing his eyes and letting out a low moan as her hand closes around him and begins to pump him until he’s hard again.

“Completely sure,” she says, leaning in to kiss him. “Make love to me, Oliver.” 

And that’s all it takes for him to go from zero to sixty in about two seconds flat. Oliver wraps one arm around her back as his other kneads her breast. He flips them over so that he’s on top of her and then kisses down her neck. He reaches down to rub at her entrance, pushing his fingers inside of her to double check that she’s ready for him. 

She’s more than ready. She grinds against him, moaning his name. 

“Please,” she says. There has been enough foreplay to last a lifetime. If he doesn’t fuck her soon, she’s going to scream. 

“I want you so much,” he says, biting into her shoulder with just enough pressure to send shots of pleasure through her but not enough to truly hurt. He hooks his arm under her knee and pulls her leg up, angling her body just so and she bites her lip in anticipation. She reaches out to grab his dick and guides him to her entrance. 

“Make love to me,” she tells him again, loving the way those words spur him on. Loving that it’s those words, above a myriad of incredibly dirty things she could say, that he finds the biggest turn on. 

He pushes into her and she has to suck in a breath at first. It’s been so long since she’s had him inside of her that she’d nearly forgotten how big he is. She breathes in deep and forces her body to relax so that he can slide all the way into her. 

“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice full of concern. She meets his eyes and she can see how much he’s holding back. How hard it is for him not to pound into her hard and fast after so long, but he doesn’t. He won’t. Not until she gives him the all clear. 

She nods. “I’m good… Better than good. I’m perfect,” she says, smiling up at him. 

“God, you’re so tight,” he says, his head falling to her chest and the change in angle drives him deeper, but it’s actually perfect. He’s hitting her exactly where she likes and it causes her to moan. 

“Yes,” she says, breathless. “Right there… Again…”

She wraps the leg he isn’t holding around his waist and presses her heel into his ass to spur him on. 

“Move…” she pleads with him, and that’s all the permission he needs.

“Thank you,” he says, shaking his head over and over as he repeats himself again and again. “Thank you for this... Thank you for loving me…” 

It breaks her heart that he ever had to doubt her love for him. That she tore them apart and forced this distance on them. But instead of focusing on all the time they’ve lost, she tries to do what Oliver has said, and focus on what they’re rebuilding.

He breathes heavily as he drives into her again and again, and she knows that he’s just barely holding it together. She can see the look of concentration on his face as he tries to hold back. His eyes drift down to watch himself slide in and out of her, and she remembers how many times he’s done so before. How she always teases him about his not-so-secret obsession with watching them join together. 

In so many ways, it feels like a first time for them, but she’s glad there’s enough reminders of their old selves that she doesn’t feel like they’ve lost years of memories together. They are still them underneath it all. And with enough practice, they’ll get past the initial shock and awe of being together again and things will be back to normal. 

“Stop thinking,” he grumbles, his hand moving from its spot next to her head down to her clit, rubbing until she sees stars and her mind goes blank. “No thinking… Just enjoy.” 

“God, yes!” she cries out, and he silences her next moan with an utterly filthy kiss that would have her doubled over if she were standing up and he wasn’t already driving into her. 

He uses his shoulder to pull her leg up even farther — and thank god for yoga because otherwise there’s no way he wouldn’t be breaking her right now — and she screams as he goes even deeper and hits her exactly where she needs, again and again.

“Fuck! Yes! Right there! Don’t stop!” 

She can barely catch her breath, but Oliver doesn’t let up until she’s muttering incoherently and her entire body is begging for release. He continues to rub at her clit relentlessly and drive into her until she finally arches up off of the bed and screams out as wave after wave of pleasure washes over her. 

She cries out Oliver’s name and that’s all he needs to let go, spilling into her. He collapses on top of her and tries to roll off, but she wraps her arms around him and holds him in place, needing to feel his weight in order to feel grounded. She feels like she could float away right now with how numb she is, and she’s half convinced that this is all just a cruel dream and she’ll wake up to find out that Oliver isn’t here and she’s back in her apartment alone with nobody beside her. 

So, no. She needs him to stay here with her for just a while longer while she tries to process that this is real. That somewhere, somehow, somebody has decided that she’s decent and worthy enough of a man as wonderful as Oliver. 

“I love you,” he whispers into her ear, pulling out of her. 

“No,” she whines, telling her brain to wrap her legs around him to keep him from moving, but her body doesn’t move. She can feel how sticky she is. She knows that at least one of them will have to move eventually in order to clean themselves up, but she doesn’t want to. Not yet. 

“Shhh, it’s okay,” he soothes her, wrapping his arms around her and rolling them over so that he’s on his back and she’s laying on his chest. 

“Oliver…” she cries. 

“I’m still here,” he says. “I’m not going anywhere. I just didn’t want to crush you.” 

“I don’t mind,” she whispers, her voice feeling hoarse. She has no idea how loud she’d been, but she must have yelled a lot for her throat to be this sore. 

“I’m not going anywhere,” he promises. “It’s okay.” 

She thinks it’s weird that he keeps telling her everything’s okay, but then watches drops of water fall to his chest and her brain catches up to her body and she realizes that she’s crying and she doesn’t even know why. It’s not like she’s sad. In fact, she’s incredibly happy. This is probably the happiest she’s been since the day they were rescued from Israel and she saw her girls for the first time in months. 

“You’re okay,” he says again, one hand absently running up and down her back, while the other cradles her to him. 

“Thank you,” she whispers, kissing his chest, which tastes salty from sweating so much, but she’s always kind of liked the way his skin tastes after sex. 

“You don’t need to thank me,” he says. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you or anything did I?” 

She shakes her head. “No… I’m perfect.”

“You’re crying,” he says, lifting his head enough to meet her eyes. “Crying doesn’t usually mean perfect.” 

“They’re happy tears,” she smiles up at him, and when it’s clear he doesn’t quite believe her, she adds, “I promise.” 

“Well, good,” he says, placing a kiss to the top of her head before laying his head back down. “I’m happy, too. Incredibly happy.” 

“Good,” she says as her eyes start to droop and she finds it hard to stay awake.

He starts to move under her and she pulls him back towards her using all of the strength she can gather. “No. Stay.” 

“I’m just going to get us a wet towel so we can clean up. I’ll be right back,” he promises. 

She reluctantly lets go of him and watches with amusement as he leaves the room without a stitch of clothing on him. She loves that he’s never been self-conscious about his body around her. It provides her with many wonderful opportunities to stare at him in all of his glory.

True to his word, he’s back in a flash, and even Barry would have marveled at his speed. He carefully washes her body, mindful of how oversensitive she is, and once they are both clean again, slides into bed, pulling the covers up over them. 

“I call for a twenty minute nap,” she says, snuggling up into his side. “Then we go for round two.” 

“You really think you’ll be up for it?” he asks with a laugh. “You can barely move.” 

“The kids are only out of the house once,” she says. “I’ll rally. Wake me up in twenty.” 

“Okay,” he promises, kissing her on the lips once, then twice before settling down. “Get some rest.”

She closes her eyes and is almost asleep when she remembers something. 

“Hey, Oliver?” 

“Hmm?” 

“I love you.” 

“I love you, too,” he says. 

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity flinches as the door slams closed loudly, the sound reverberating through the room.  _

_ “Oh god,” she whispers as tears fill her eyes and she tries to will them back.  _

_ She’s been determined not to show weakness here. She’s been terrified that her dad would make good on his threats to kill Oliver and marry her off to one of these Jewish terrorist who are all more than willing to beat her into submission. _

_ Except, none of that really matters anymore. Not when those guards are going to come back with her father at any minute and he’s going to expect her to deliver a weapon of mass destruction. He’s going to expect her to set her bomb off on the Gaza Strip. If she says no again, he’ll shoot them both. And if she does release the bomb and it doesn’t take out all of Palestine, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon with it?  _

_ He’ll see her betrayal in a heartbeat and kill them both. Slowly. And likely go after the Grace and Ella when he’s done with them.  _

_ “What did I do?” she asks, pulling at her restraints, not caring how it makes her wrists bleed and her barely healed broken wrist ache.  _

_ Pain can be dealt with. Her wrist can be reset. Her skin will scar over eventually. There’s no recovering from a bullet to the head.  _

_ “It’s going to be okay,” Oliver tells her, but it’s hard to believe him when his voice is still raspy from being nearly choked to death barely a minute ago.  _

_ “We’re going to die,” she tells him.  _

_ She continues to pull at her restraints. The arms of the chair are made of wood, they will give way eventually. She just needs to pull harder. She needs to be stronger. She digs her heels into the floor to get leverage, but it doesn’t help. Her bare feet can’t get enough traction on the cement. All she’s managing to do is push the chair farther from the desk.  _

_ “You need to dislocate your thumb,” Oliver tells her, all emotion gone from his voice.  _

_ She whips her head around to look at him, but he isn’t looking at her. He’s staring at a spot on the wall and she can see that he’s completely disconnected himself emotionally from what is happening.  _

_ Good, she thinks. If she knew how to disconnect, she would, too. They are going to die. Her father is going to make her watch Oliver die and then he’s going to kill her. He’ll make it last hours, too. Just to prove a point. Disconnecting is the only move they have left.   _

_ “Dislocate your thumb,” Oliver says again. _

_ “I don’t know how!” she says frantically, ever aware of the clock ticking down and the seconds slipping away from them.  _

_ There’s no time. There’s never enough time.  _

_ She should have been better. She should have done more.  _

_ How did she let things get this far?  _

_ As if her own impending death isn’t bad enough, Oliver is going to die too, and after everything he’s been through and survived… It’s not fair.  _

_ It’s. Not. Fair.  _

_ She hears voices outside the door and she looks up at Oliver in a panic. Thankfully they keep on walking past, but they won’t be that lucky for long. Her father will be here and soon. She needs to get free.  _

_ “Take a deep breath,” he says and she tries to do as he says. “Hook your thumb over the arm of the chair.”  _

_ She does as he says, and he corrects her until she’s in the correct position.  _

_ “This is going to hurt, but you have to do it,” he says. “Do you understand?” _

_ Felicity takes a steadying breath, preparing herself for the pain that she knows will come.  _

_ “Felicity!” Oliver says harshly, getting her attention.  _

_ “Yes,” she says. “Yes. I understand.”  _

_ The fact that he’s not even apologizing reminds her that he’s already removed himself from the situation. She is no longer his wife. He is not her husband. He’s not even the Green Arrow right now. This is full on Hood.  _

_ If only she had a mask she could hide behind. Why didn’t she ever take her training beyond basic self-defense? She could have been stronger than this. She could have been better. How is she Oliver’s only chance at survival right now? It’s ridiculous. She can’t save anyone. She’s worthless.  _

_ She can hear footsteps down the hall and she knows that it’s her father this time. She can just feel her blood run cold and her stomach turn to lead in the way that only his presence can bring. Oliver must sense him, too, because he’s giving her directions so quickly she can barely understand him.  _

_ “You have to put all of your weight on the thumb so that it pops out of place. Then you’ll pull your hands free. Use all of your strength. Once you get out, run. Don’t look back. Don’t stop for me. Just go.”  _

_ “Oliver—” _

_ “Felicity, break your thumb,” he says so harshly that she actually whimpers in fear.  _

_ She’s heard him use his Arrow voice on other people, but never on her. She knows that he’s desperate. That he’s not yelling at her because he hates her or is mad at her for getting them into this situation. Logically, she knows that. But it doesn’t stop her from starting to cry as feelings of inadequacy consume her.  _

_ She tries to lean her weight on her thumb, but she can’t do it. It’s like her body is instinctively fighting back, not allowing her to hurt herself like that. Which is ridiculous. Doesn’t her brain realize that a dislocated or even broken thumb will be a lot less painful than death?  _

_ She can hear the key being slid into the lock and she knows there are only seconds left now.  _

_ “Felicity!”  _

_ “Okay!”  _

_ She stands up as best she can in her restraints and places all of her weight on her hands before jumping up and slamming back down into her chair. Her thumbs pop loudly and instantly she’s overwhelmed by the amount of pain and nausea flowing through her body. She leans over in her seat and begins dry heaving.  _

_ The door slides open and Felicity instantly sits up and bites her lips together to keep them from noticing anything is amiss, even as her stomach continues to protest and her mouth fills with bile she has to swallow down.  _

_ She hears the sound of heavy boots enter the room and a hand grabs her forcibly by the chin and yanks her so hard her neck nearly breaks as she cries out.  _

_ “Klara, if you value your life, you’ll set off that bomb,” her father says, his face inches from her own.  _

_ His eyes are cold and unfeeling. Any lingering thoughts about appealing to his humanity are out the window. He is looking at her like she’s little more than dirt caked to the bottom of his shoe. _

_ “No,” she says, trying to shake her head, but his grip is so tight that she can’t even move.  _

_ Without warning, he pulls a gun out of it’s holster and shoots at Oliver.  _

_ She screams and tries to look, but her father doesn’t let her. Her heartbeat speeds up at the sound of Oliver grunting in pain. She has no idea where he’s been hit. For all she knows, he could be taking his last breaths right now.  _

_ Her own breathing becomes labored as she struggles to get air into her lungs. She won’t lose Oliver. She can’t.  _

_ Oh god. Why is this happening?  _

_ “Please,” she cries, trying to turn her head to see, but he still won’t let her go.  _

_ “Set. It. Off. Now,” he says, his grip on her tightening as he places the barrel of the gun at her head.  _

_ She closes her eyes and begins reciting her prayers. She begs for God’s forgiveness for what she’s done and pleads for the strength not to set off that bomb, no matter what threats or promises her father makes. She knows herself. She won’t hesitate to do it if she believes it’ll save Oliver or the girls. She’s not as selfless as everyone likes to believe. She won’t hesitate to trade her family for several thousand others if she can guarantee their safety.  _

_ So she prays for the strength to make what she knows is the right decision. She  _ can’t _ set off that bomb. She has to have faith that Thea, Roy — and if there’s any compassion in this world, Digg — will be able to protect the girls from her father. And Oliver… _

_ There’s no silver lining for him… No matter what choice she makes, he’s likely going to die. For all she knows, he’s bleeding out right now. She can’t kill thousands of people just on the prayer that he’ll spare her loved ones.  _

_ She can’t.  _

_ Right?  _

_ “No,” she whispers, this time with much less conviction.  _

_ He pulls back the hammer of the gun and she flinches, but he doesn’t shoot her.  _

_ “Felicity, it’s going to be okay,” Oliver says. And though his breathing sounds labored, he’s still alive and for that she’s grateful. Perhaps she’ll be granted the mercy of being allowed to go first so she never has to live in a world without him.  _

_ “Shut up!” her father yells, pointing the gun back at Oliver and releasing his grip on her. She turns to look at him. Her eyes quickly move over his body, scanning first his chest, knowing a shot to his heart would do him in quicker than anything else. Then she scans his stomach and breathes a sigh of relief when she sees no gunshot there. Her eyes lower and she sees the blood flowing down his thigh.  _

_ She breathes a sigh of relief. While he’s still very much in danger of bleeding out, a shot to the thigh buys them slightly more time. She can still save him at this point. If only she’s strong enough.  _

_ “You can set off the bomb now, or I can kill you and Oliver and set of the bomb once you're dead,” he says. “Your choice Klara. Either way, that bomb is getting set off.”  _

_ “Oliver,” she says, shaking her head.  _

_ “Look at me,” he says at the same time her father says, “Ten.”  _

_ Felicity looks up at Oliver and meets his eyes for the first time since her father walked in. They are filled with emotion and he’s trying to smile at her. He’s not shutting himself off anymore, and she knows that he’s doing it for her. There’s no other reason for him to not disconnect from this hell right now except to reassure her.  _

_ It’s not right.  _

_ She doesn’t deserve his compassion. He shouldn’t be giving her his affection.  _

_ Doesn’t he realize that they are about to die and it’s entirely her fault.  _

_ “I love you,” Oliver says as her father continues to count down.  _

_ “Nine.”  _

_ She has to do something. She can’t let this happen. She won’t let Oliver die. _

_ “Don’t shoot him, please,” Felicity begs her father as tears stream down her face.  _

_ He shakes his head and points at the computer in front of her, “Eight.”   _

_ She scoots her chair back over to the desk and debates setting off the bomb. Maybe she can negotiate Oliver’s freedom. Her father will be furious that she betrayed him by lying about building a fusion bomb, but she’ll have killed thousands of Palestinians. Perhaps it will be enough.  _

_ She can convince him to keep her hostage here and let Oliver go back home.  _

_ Felicity could be a terrorist. She could work for her father.  _

_ If it means saving Oliver, she’s pretty sure there’s nothing she isn’t capable of doing.  _

_ “Seven.”  _

_ Felicity’s hands shake as they raise up towards the computer. Her thumbs hurt so much, but she ignores the pain for now and reaches out for her keyboard, praying that her hands will still be able to type with how much her body is shaking in agony.  _

_ “I set this off and Oliver goes free,” she says, staring up at her father.  _

_ She needs to hear him promise. She needs to know that this won’t be for nothing.  _

_ “Don’t do it!” Oliver yells. “Not for me!”  _

_ “Quiet!” her dad yells, shooting Oliver again.  _

_ Felicity cries out and turns around to see that he’s now been shot in the arm. The movement pulls at her handcuffs and she’s reminded that she can easily slip out of them now that her thumbs are both dislocated. _

_ Oliver looks homicidal. Felicity is sure that if he weren’t being suspended in air by multiple chains, he’d have Hulked out already and gone on a murderous rampage. However, her father is barely even flinching. In fact, he’s smirking at Oliver as he points his gun at his face.  _

_ “Six.”  _

_ Her dad turns back to her and says, “Set it off and we can talk about releasing your husband.”  _

_ It’s not a promise. She’s not stupid. She can hear between the lines. He has no intention of ever letting Oliver leave this building in anything but a body bag, which is not an option for her. She refuses to let Oliver die.  _

_ There is no negotiating. She needs to find another way.  _

_ “Five.”  _

_ Felicity bites both of her lips in an effort to keep from making a sound as she slowly starts to pull her hands out of the handcuffs. Her vision goes white from the pain, but she doesn’t allow herself to stop. The second her father gets to zero, she has no doubt that he will pull that trigger and Oliver will be dead.  _

_ She manages to get both hands free while her father is busy looking at Oliver. She looks around, trying to figure out where to go from here.  _

_ There isn’t another weapon in the room. Her father is holding a gun, but she’s pretty sure attempting to take it from him will just result in her getting shot and loosing any chance at saving Oliver.  _

_ She could charge him with the chair, but it’s made of wood. He’d just shoot at her and the bullet would go straight through. She needs a plan.  _

_ “Four.” _

_ She’s almost out of time. _

_ Her eyes frantically scan the desk, trying to figure out what she can use. There’s a monitor, but it’s flimsy and there’s no way she can lift the industrial supercomputer she’s been working on.  _

_ She could wrap the power cord around his neck though. If she did it fast enough, she could maybe strangle him before he could shoot either of them.  _

_ Her eyes go to the cord. There’s a huge bundle of them that go up the wall. It’s super thick, but it will do the job. _

_ She reaches her foot out to try and scoot her chair over without being noticed and she’s met with water. _

_ The guards had waterboarded Oliver earlier in the day and the floor hadn’t dried yet. _

_ Her eyes scan the concrete and she realizes that her father is standing in a puddle as well.   _

_ “Three.”  _

_ Her mind starts working through the problem quickly as she calculates the amount of electricity that the super computer would need combined with everything else that is plugged into the wall.  _

_ It’s enough, but she’ll have to get the wires exposed… _

_ “Two.”  _

_ She will need to be sure that neither she nor Oliver are standing in the water when she does it or she’ll kill them all.  _

_ “One.”  _

_ She doesn’t have time to think anymore. She stands up out of her chair and pushes everything off of the desk in front of her in the opposite direction of where the power cords go up and through the cement wall, so that when the supercomputer falls to the floor, it yanks the cords hard enough to tear them open.  _

_ Her father turns around in shock, pointing the gun at her, but she doesn’t have time to cower in fear of him pulling the trigger.  _

_ She reaches out and grabs the sparking cord off of the ground and moves out of the puddle at her feet, yelling, “Oliver!”  _

_ She has the fleeting thought that Oliver won’t understand what to do before her father catches on and moves out of the way, but really… She should know better by now. They’ve been a team for years. When it comes to a mission, they are always on the same page.  _

_ She hears him grunt out as he pulls on the chains above him and lifts his feet from the floor at the same time Felicity throws the cord into the water.  _

_ The result is almost instantaneous. Her dad begins shaking and drops the gun to the floor and it scatters to her feet. She instantly picks it up. He tries to step out of the water, but he’s in the middle of the pool of water and his body is seizing too much. She watches in satisfaction as he falls to the ground, continuing to shake. _

_ The door flies open and Felicity shoots at the two guards several times until they fall unmoving to the floor. She’s not sure when she became such a good shot, but she doesn’t have time to examine it now.  _

_ She turns back to her father and shoots him several times in the chest for good measure. _

_ The room begins to smell like something is burning, but she doesn't pay it any mind. _

_ At this point, the only thing she’s focused on is the mission. On getting Oliver out of here. And right now, that means making sure that her father is no longer a threat.  _

_ Oliver is shaking with the effort of holding himself up with a gunshot wound to the arm and she knows that any second, he could lose his grip and fall into the water and electrocute himself as well.  _

_ She has to weigh her options.  _

_ If she knows her father, nothing will actually keep him down for long. She’s seen enough people come back from the dead to know that her father has probably made some deal with the devil for immortality. No amount of electrocution or number of gunshot wounds will kill him.  _

_ If she lifts the cords out of the water, she risks him coming back to life. But if she leaves them in, she risks Oliver. And really, Oliver may have nine lives, but he’s already so weak from torture and now two gunshot wounds that desperately need attention. An electric shock may be all it takes to push him over the edge.  _

_ There’s no choice to make. _

_ She reaches for the cord and pulls it out of the water as it continues to spark. She tosses it carelessly in the direction of the burning computer.  _

_ Her father doesn’t move, but she’s not convinced. She’s sure it’s just an act to lure them into complacency so that he can get the upper hand again. She tries to shoot at him again, but the gun is out of bullets. She tosses it to the side. _

_ Worthless.  _

_ Instead, she picks up the chair she’d been bound to and lifts it over her head.  _

_ She’s so consumed with blind rage for the man at her feet that she barely even feels her body scream out in protest at the way she’s overworking her dislocated thumbs.  _

_ She just snaps. _

_ She starts hitting her father over and over. She hits him until the chair breaks and then she continues to hit him with one of the heavy legs. She barely notices all of the blood. She doesn’t register how his face becomes unrecognizable.  _

_ She doesn’t register anything. _

_ Her mind is too set on shutting him up before the countdown can reach zero and Oliver dies.  _

_ “Felicity!”  _

_ It’s Oliver’s voice that finally forces her to stop. _

_ She freezes with bloody chair leg. She’s breathing heavily as her mind starts to come to.  _

_ It’s like waking up from a dream.  _

_ A very traumatizing dream in which she’s covered in her father’s blood.  _

_ She stares down at the man that used to read her bedtime stories of astronauts discovering lost planets and supergirls saving poor defenseless princes.  _

_ She looks at her hands, soaked red with the blood of the man who taught her to build her first computer.  _

_ She starts shaking her head as her hands begin to tremble.  _

_ “Felicity,” Oliver says, sounding like he’s trying to soothe a rabid animal.  _

_ And really. Isn’t he?  _

_ Hadn’t she just lost it and beaten her father to death?  _

_ Oh god.  _

_ Her breathing increases again and she feels like she’s about to pass out.  _

_ “Felicity, I need you to break down later,” he says, but his words are distorted. Like he’s talking to her through a fog.  _

_ “More men are going to be coming soon. We don’t have long. I need you to get me down.”  _

_ She looks back at her father and lets out a startled sob at the sight of him.  _

_ He’s barely recognizable.  _

_ She’d done that to him. _

_ The world tilts on it’s axis and she falls hard to her knees next to her dad. The eye that is not swollen shut remains open and lifeless.  _

_ She reaches out and gently closes it, unable to look at him like this.  _

_ “What have I done?”  _

_ “Felicity!”  _

_ She shakes her head, paralyzed with regret and self-loathing.  _

_ “What have I done?”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments keep me going!


	23. Ultimatum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There really aren't any kind of words to justify the long length between updates. I could tell you all a sob story about my mini-mental breakdown and reluctance to write such a heavy story again... but even that doesn't really seem fair to bog you guys down with. 
> 
> Instead I'm just going to apologize and thank anyone that is still with me!

**City of Fallen Heroes**

**Chapter 23: Ultimatum**

 

**2022**

_ “Felicity,” Oliver says, trying to get her attention, but she doesn’t react. She just keeps staring at her father barely moving.  _

_ She’s in shock and he would love to be able to give her a minute to process everything that’s just happened, but there isn’t time. Any moment, more men are going to come through that door and they need to have a plan.  _

_ “Felicity,” he says urgently, but she continues to ignore him.  _

_ He pulls at the chains keeping him in place and grunts through the excruciating pain that spreads down his arm. Although he might normally be able to break himself out of his chains, he's in no condition now. Felicity  _ has _ to snap out of it and help him.  _

_ “Felicity!” he yells.  _

_ He immediately grits his teeth against the pain in his chest. There's not a single part of his body that hasn't been beaten or abused in the last several weeks and any medical attention they’ve given him has been minimal.  _

_ “Felicity! You need to help me before they come back,” he says.  _

_ Still, nothing.  _

_ She's staring at Abraham unblinking, hand out like she wants to touch him but is scared. She’s shaking.  _

_ While Oliver understands how she's feeling, she doesn't have the luxury of falling apart now. Not while they are so close to escaping. She needs to find her strength for another few minutes. _

_ He's gotta figure out how to get through to her.  _

_ Oliver quickly thinks of himself and what helps him when he gets like this. When he’s this far into his mind, there are only two things that can pull him back: his wife and his kids.  _

_ “Felicity, we have to get home. Grace and Ella are waiting for us.” _

_ Her head moves just the tiniest bit.  _

_ “Think of the girls. Your daughters need you. Now. Get. Up,” he says firmly, leaving no room for argument. This isn’t up for debate. They are leaving. Now.  _

_ He can worry about niceties later. When they are out of this hellhole.  _

_ Her hand falls to Abraham’s arm and slowly she pulls it back to stare at the blood staining her fingers.  _

_ “What did I do,” she whispers.  _

_ Oliver closes his eyes and swallows back the guilt that consumes him at allowing things to get this far. He's seen a lot of things in his life. Hell he's done a lot of things in his life. But Felicity?  _

_ He doesn't know how he's supposed to get her through this. She hadn't just killed her father. She’d gone beyond that. She'd savagely beaten him. Oliver had watched her as she'd hit him over and over again and her eyes had been lifeless. The Felicity he knows wasn't there. He's not sure he'll ever get her back.  _

_ But he can't worry about that now. He takes all of his feelings, pulling them to the back of his mind, and buries them deep down. He then brings forward the monster. Oliver Queen and the Arrow failed to save Felicity, but he still remembers how to become someone else. How to become something else.  _

_ Oliver takes a greater hold on the chains above him and rattles them loudly. Any thought to the pain he’s feeling is gone. There is only the mission.  _

_ “Felicity!” he yells, kicking water at her repeatedly until she finally starts blinking.  _

_ She turns to look at him in confusion. As if she doesn't know what he's doing there.  _

_ “Take the key from the guards and get me down,” he says carefully so she can understand each word.  _

_ She looks up at the chains holding him to the ceiling slowly then back down at him.  _

_ “What?” she asks.  _

_ “The guards,” he nods towards the door where the two guards had been shot. “Get their keys.”  _

_ She nods her head and stands up on shaky legs, moving towards the door. He wants to urge her to move faster but he also doesn't want to scare her back into her shell now that she's finally moving.  _

_ She unhooks the keys from one of the guard’s belt and walks over to him, pointedly not looking at her father’s body. She stands in front of him, eyes following the blood flowing from his arm but makes no move to get him down.  _

_ “Felicity,” he says as gently as he can but it still causes her to jump. “You need to get me down.” _

_ It takes several seconds for his words to sink in. Once they do, she places her hand on his shoulder for leverage and reaches up to slide the key into the lock. She reaches up with her other hand to undo the lock, and that’s when she notices the bloody handprint that she’s left on him. She pulls away shaking her head.  _

_ “Hey, hey,” he says. “It’s okay. You’re almost done. Just undo the lock.”  _

_ Her eyes remain glued to the blood on his shoulder.  _

_ “Felicity, please,” he says quietly, hearing footsteps down the hall. “They’re coming. Think of the girls.”  _

_ It’s not going to take long before somebody comes in to check on them and he can’t be chained up when that happens.  _

_ Felicity reaches back up slowly and pulls the lock out of the chains. His weight comes crashing down too fast to catch himself, and he ends up falling into her. She stumbles underneath his weight, but he quickly rights himself before they can go tumbling to the floor.  _

_ “I’m going to get you out of here,” he says. “We’re going home.” _

_ She shakes her head.  _

_ She doesn't say anything, but she doesn't have to. He's been where she is and he knows what she must be thinking. He'd once thought there was no going home again after the horrors he'd endured. After the darkness he'd helped create. But he'd been wrong. He has a beautiful family that proves that.  _

_ “We are going home,” he repeats himself, squeezing her arms hoping his touch will ground her to reality long enough to get out of here. “You don't belong here.”  _

_ Felicity starts to nod, but then her eyes linger back to her father’s body.  _

_ “You need to go,” Felicity says, moving to kneel again but Oliver won't let her.  _

_ “We both do,” he says.  _

_ Hell will freeze over before he leaves Felicity behind in this house of horrors.  _

_ He grabs her arm and drags her towards the door, pocketing the guards’ weapons as he goes, leaving him with just a handgun for now. He hopes that the adrenaline coursing through his veins is powerful enough to last them til they can escape, because his entire body is screaming out in pain. He's overcome a lot of difficult situations, but if they make it out of this alive, it’ll be a miracle. Especially if Felicity can't get over her shock long enough to help.  _

_ Footsteps get closer to the door. The guards will be here any moment. He pulls Felicity behind him, shielding her from any stray bullets before pulling the door open enough to shoot the approaching men. The second their bodies hit the floor, Oliver pulls at Felicity and they begin making their way down the hallway.  _

_ For the past several weeks, he’s been trying to memorize the layout of this bunker so that they could find their way out should the opportunity present itself. However, he’d never been given the chance to see an exit. Their guards had been very careful. This isn’t Oliver’s first time being held prisoner, though. He’s done his homework. He paid attention to every guard when they arrived and the direction they’d always come from. He’s fairly certain that there is an exit up to the ground level west of them.  _

_ They just have to make it there alive.  _

_ Three more guards turn the corner and Oliver immediately shoots them as well. A second later, an alarm sounds. He can hear heavy footsteps from the floor above. The entire building has been put on alert and will be coming for them. They’ve just lost any element of surprise that they had left, but it’ll be okay.  _

_ It has to be okay.  _

_ Oliver practically drags Felicity behind him as she makes no effort to move any faster. She’s too lost in her haze. He’s torn between picking her up so they can move faster, or keeping his hands free so he can fight better. With how injured he is, he’s not positive he could even carry her weight.  _

_ They step over the guards he shot and Oliver glimpses at a satellite phone on one of the men. He quickly grabs it and hands it to Felicity.  _

_ “Call Lyla,” he orders and he pulls them back just in time to miss a bullet to the chest. He pushes her back against the wall with one hand and shoots at the approaching guards with his other.  _

_ They trade several shots, taking turns between hiding and firing. There are at least 5 men around the corner, and they are quickly getting closer.  _

_ “Felicity, call!” Oliver yells when he notices she’s not doing anything.  _

_ Felicity just stares at the phone blankly, unmoving.  _

_ Oliver reaches out and yanks the phone from her hands, dialing a number Amanda Waller made sure he had memorized long ago. He places the phone between his shoulder and head in order to free up his hands to continue shooting at the guards.  _

_ Oliver can hear the click as the line is answered, even if the person on the other end of the line doesn’t say anything.  _

_ “This is Oliver Queen, Special Agent 5329,” he says, knowing that his agent status had been revoked when Lyla took over ARGUS as a favor to him, but that typing the number into the system will set off enough red flags to alert Lyla directly. “I’m requesting immediate extraction from this location for two people.”  _

_ Oliver can hear the person on the other line typing away as he continues to shoot. It seems like there is less gunfire coming his way. He shoots one last time, then peeks around the corner. There is an opening. He can see boots coming down the stairs, but nobody is immediately on them. He grabs Felicity’s hand and pulls her around the corner and into a doorway closer to the stairs they need to get up. From this position, he can more easily hit his targets as they come down the stairs.  _

_ Oliver easily takes out four men before his gun runs out of bullets. He tosses it to the side and pulls out another gun from his waistband.  _

_ “Oliver Queen for Director Michaels,” the operator finally speaks up and barely a moment later, Lyla is on the phone.  _

_ “Oliver! Where are you?!” Lyla asks. He knows that ARGUS is already tracing this call, but it will take a moment or two for them to pinpoint his exact location.  _

_ “Israel,” he tells her, hoping it speeds the process along. “I’m not sure where.”  _

_ “Alert Negev. I want a team ready to go the second we get a location,” Lyla says to her men.  _

_ “Come out with your hands up, Klara, and nobody has to get hurt,” one of the guards shouts at them. Oliver grabs onto Felicity’s wrists and holds her in place, lest she get any crazy ideas. He has to be cautious. The woman he’s with right now is not the Felicity he knows. He has no way of anticipating her actions when she’s like this.  _

_ With his free hand, he shoots the man coming down the stairs.  _

_ “We’ve got a location, a team is 15 minutes out,” Lyla informs him. “Tell me what we’re dealing with.”  _

_ “Terrorist cell,” Oliver says. “They’ve been holding us in the basement, so I can’t be sure. I’d say 60,000 square feet with no more than 50 members on site.” _

_ He rattles off the details of their location as he can best estimate so that the ARGUS agents on their way can prepare for what they are walking into.  _

_ “We’re coming for you,” Lyla tells him. “Find a safe place and barricade yourself in. Help will be there soon.”  _

_ Right. Help is coming. This time it’s for real. It has to be. Felicity and he won’t survive another misdirect.  _

_ “Got it,” Oliver says. “I’m hanging up now so I can focus.”  _

_ “Oliver,” Lyla says quickly before he can hang up the phone. “Felicity is with you? You’re both alright?”  _

_ Now that details have been worked out and the mission is a go, gone is the director of ARGUS and here is one of his closest friends. He can hear the worry in her voice. He gets that. There’s nothing worse than being sidelined on a mission as important as this. And with Lyla all the way back in the states, there’s no way she could get to him in time to be helpful.  _

_ “We’re fine,” Oliver says, deciding not to mention the two gunshot wounds that will bleed out if he doesn’t get medical attention soon. There’s nothing Lyla can do for them that she isn’t already doing and her knowing about their current condition won’t do any good. “We’ll need medical when we get out of here, but we’re fine.”  _

_ “Stay safe,” Lyla says before he hangs up.  _

_ Two more men come down the stairs and Oliver takes them out before he sees their opening to get up top. He takes a deep breath. There’s no telling what they are walking into when they head up, but they need to get closer to an exit. He only needs to hold down the fort long enough for ARGUS to show up. He can do that.  _

_ He’ll get them out of this godforsaken basement so they are easier to find when ARGUS arrives and then do as Lyla says. Barricade themselves into a room and wait. He won’t be the hero when he’s got Felicity to take care of and she’s in such a vulnerable state. ARGUS is coming to help, so he’s going to let them.  _

_ Oliver and Felicity reach the top of the stairs and pause. He listens carefully. He counts the footsteps and voices, mentally cataloging where everyone is the best he can so he can anticipate where he’ll need to direct his attention first. After all, he’s walking in blind. They’ve never let him outside of the basement.  _

_ When he’s ready, he pulls Felicity further behind him and steps out onto the ground floor and starts firing.  _

_ It really is a blessing that he doesn’t have his bow in this instance. He’s starting to lose his strength and he doesn’t know how much longer he can keep going.There’s no way he’d be able to draw his bow. If he gets pulled into hand-to-hand combat, he’ll lose. But a gun? A gun he can handle.  _

_ Oliver takes out several men as he makes his way down the hallway, headed west, where he’s hoping the exit will be. He checks doors as he goes, but everything is locked and he doesn’t have the time to break in. Not with the alarm still sounding and men continuing to storm them.  _

_ In a stroke of luck, a guard opens a door in front of him and Oliver is able to take him out and grab the door before it closes and automatically locks. Seeing nobody else inside, he pulls Felicity in and locks the door behind him.  _

_ It’s a guard post.  _

_ It’s clearly not the main post as there isn’t a ton of equipment, but there are monitors for the complex. This is perfect. He can see threats approaching and guide ARGUS in.  _

_ Oliver drags a desk over towards the door to make sure that nobody can get in without giving them fair warning. He knocks on the metal door to test it, satisfied that it would take a lot for the men to shoot their way in.  _

_ They are safe. For now.  _

_ Oliver sits Felicity down in a corner, far away from the door and tries not to wince and the distant, unaffected look in her eyes.  _

_ “We’re getting out of here,” he tells her, cradling her cheek with his hand, but he gets no reaction from her.  _

_ “We’re getting out of here,” he says again, this time more to reassure himself that they won’t be stuck in this hellhole forever. That they won’t have to stay in this place that’s broken them both so completely.  _

_ He lets Felicity be for now. He assumes she’ll be easier to talk to once they are out of here and their freedom isn’t hypothetical. Once she’s been reunited with their girls and is actually home.  _

_ He moves over to the monitors, keeping an eye out for incoming threats as he examines his wounds. The gunshot to his thigh was a through and through. It’s bleeding pretty heavily, but he can tell it didn’t hit the femoral artery. If it had, there’s no way he’d still be standing. Nevertheless, he sits down and places his foot on the chair next to him to try and elevate his leg the best he can to slow the bleeding as he turns his attention to the wound in his arm.  _

_ The bullet didn’t go through. It’s still in there. Which isn’t the end of the world, but it does mean he has to worry about it traveling to other parts of his body. Still, it’s a greater risk to dig into his arm for it than it is to leave it until a doctor can look at it. Trying to remove it could cause more damage than the bullet itself.  _

_ Oliver raises his arm until it’s above his heart and applies pressure to the wound, as he’s losing blood from his arm at a much faster rate than his thigh. He glances around the room for anything that could be used to apply some first aid to his leg. He could try to fashion a tourniquet, however, doing so correctly is tricky and would limit his ability to move if any guards got through the door. What he needs is another set of hands to put pressure on the wound.  _

_ Oliver shifts his body around and raises his other leg to try and get his other heel to dig into his thigh and stop the bleeding, but it’s just too high up for him to reach. Movement out of the corner of his eye catches his attention and he’s shocked to see Felicity walk over to him and kneel in front of the chair.  _

_ Without saying a word, she slips her sweatshirt off and uses it to apply pressure to his thigh.  _

_ “Thank you,” he says, grateful that she’s come to enough to help him, even if her eyes tell him she’s still a million miles away from him.  _

_ “You can’t die,” she whispers to herself. “Not after everything… You can’t die.”  _

_ Oliver’s heart breaks. He can read between the lines. She’s killed Abraham — brutally beaten him — to save his life. So if he dies before they can escape, it will have been for nothing.  _

_ Oliver has to look away from her. He made her into this. He failed to get them out of this situation and now Felicity has blood on her hands that won’t ever wash off. She’s been forever changed and he’d done nothing to prevent it.  _

_ When he married her, he promised to protect her with his dying breath. When Grace and Ella were each born, he made that promise to her again. He swore that he would do everything in his power to make sure that his children never had to experience the loss of a parent. The loss of a mother. He’d lost his own at 28 and it had been nearly unbearable. He watched how hard life had been for Tommy when his mom had died at 8. He was never going to let that happen to his babies.  _

_ Yet, here they are.  _

_ Felicity may not be dead yet, but she’s broken to a point where he doesn’t know if they’ll get her back anytime soon.  _

_ His eyes go to the monitors, praying that ARGUS arrives soon. Now that they’ve stopped moving and the adrenaline is wearing off, the true extent of his injuries is catching up with him. He’s in pain. A lot of pain. Every muscle in his body aches from weeks of torture. His bones protest even the slightest movements. And the blood loss already has him experiencing symptoms of shock.  _

_ He’s struggling to keep his eyes open. The way the images on the monitor are blurring together make him feel like he may vomit. Breathing is becoming more difficult, but he’s trying to force himself to breathe normally so he doesn’t freak out Felicity. It’s brutal. He feels like he’s suffocating as he forces his body to take deep breaths.  _

_ He’s scared that he may actually die in here. That he will have come all this way, survived all of Abraham’s trials and later torturing, only to be killed minutes from a rescue. He’s terrified that he’s going to leave Felicity alone in this world without knowing for sure that she’s safe. That she’s made it home.  _

_ He has to stay alive long enough to make sure that ARGUS gets her out.  _

_ That’s what he holds onto.  _

_ He has to stay alive for another few minutes for Felicity.  _

_ **** _

**2026**

Sunlight creeps through the sliver of an opening in the curtains and tries to pull Felicity back to reality. She’s just had the most wonderful dream that her and Oliver were back together and she doesn’t want it to end. In fact, she can still feel his weight against her back, covering her like a security blanket. It’s been years since she felt anything close to happy or content, but in this moment, that’s exactly how she feels. 

And she just knows if she opens her eyes everything will come crashing down. 

She’ll wake up and realize that she’s alone in this bed and Oliver on the other side of town. 

If she closes her eyes tight enough, she can feel Oliver’s lips against her, trailing soft kisses along her neck, just the way he used to wake her up in the mornings. Her imagination is too good. It’s unfair. 

“Felicity,” Oliver whispers, his warm breath against her ear, causing her to shiver as the sleepiness starts to dissipate and she begins to realize that none of this is a dream. 

She opens her eyes slowly and glances back over her shoulder, smiling when she sees his gorgeous face staring down at her. 

“You’re really here,” she whispers, not wanting anything to break this moment. 

“Always,” he whispers back before leaning in to kiss her in that maddening, toe-curling way of his. 

She rolls over onto her back, and that’s when she feels it. The first pull of her muscles. She groans as her entire body protests against any kind of movement and she starts wondering if anything after their second time last night was the best idea. She certainly isn’t as young as she once was. 

“You broke me,” she chastises him halfheartedly, causing him to laugh. 

“Let me make it up to you,” he says, placing kisses along her collarbone while his hand trails down her ribcage and makes its way across her stomach. 

She playfully slaps his hand away. “That’s what got me into this mess in the first place,” she says. 

“Was it not good for you?” Oliver asks with a smirk. “Because I could have sworn you came…” he pauses to count out using his fingers and she smacks his hand away again. 

“Alright, no need to take a victory lap,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Nobody likes a show-off.”

“Oh the contrary, I think you liked it,” he says, placing open mouth kisses on the top of her breasts, his hand tracing along her hip bone. 

Felicity moans as his hand makes it’s way between her legs at the same time his lips close around her nipple. 

She couldn’t possibly go again. Even her bones ache and it’s possible she’d pulled a muscle in her hip last night. But goddamn if Oliver doesn’t have the most talented fingers in the world. 

“Mr. Queen, if you’re not careful, this is going to lead to something,” she teases him breathlessly as his fingers begin to pick up their pace. 

“I was planning on it,” he says, pressing his erection against her hip to show her that he means business. 

It’s been a long time since she’s enjoyed the luxury of lazy Sunday morning sex —

And just like that, the mood is broken by the ringing of Oliver’s cellphone. 

“Ignore it,” she says, grabbing onto his wrist before he can pull away. 

Oliver briefly glances over his shoulder before shaking his head. “It’s Maggie.” 

Felicity nods her understanding. Oliver’s assistant never calls him on the weekends unless it’s important. He lets out what she’s sure are several curse words in Russian before he rolls away from her to grab his phone off of the nightstand. 

“Hello?” he answers. 

Felicity can’t hear the other end of the conversation, but she knows by the way Oliver’s body tenses up that this isn’t anything as simple as a contract he’d forgotten to sign or a vote not going his way. This is something big. 

“Was anyone hurt?” he asks, standing up and heading towards the closet. Felicity’s heart jumps to her throat as she tries to picture what could have happened. After the craziness of the last few weeks, she has a right to be worried. 

She sits up in bed and listens to Oliver’s side of the conversation trying to piece together what she can of what’s going on. 

“No… I’m on my way… Because I’m the mayor and I have a responsibility to my people. I’m going to be there… Yes… I’ll see you soon.” 

Oliver hangs up the phone and Felicity stares at him expectantly, preparing herself for whatever horrible thing has just happened.  

Oliver stares at his phone for several moments before taking a steadying breath and looking up at her. “There were landmines placed all around Fairview Park. This morning several went off,” he says, a grave look on his face. 

Felicity gasps in shock. 

“Fairview Park?” she says, her stomach feeling like it’s dropped all the way to the floor. 

“I know,” he says, meeting her eyes. Thea was supposed to get married at Fairview Park last night. She was going to have the ceremony right by the bay under a heated tent before moving inside for the reception. 

“How many…” Felicity needs to know, but she doesn’t know how to ask.

“Two morning joggers are dead and a family of 4 is in the hospital in critical condition. SCPD has closed off the park while they wait for the bomb squad to arrive.” 

Oh god, Felicity swallows back a sob as she tries not to think about how easily that could have been them. How awful those families must be feeling. She takes the girls to Fairview Park all of the time. Never in a million years would she expect any of those trips to end with one of them stepping on a landmine. Those dangers are reserved for war torn countries thousands of miles away or islands from hell. 

“I’m going to kill them,” Felicity says, grabbing her laptop off of the nightstand, feeling a renewed energy to hunt down every member of The Final Order and take them off the board. Permanently if she has to. 

“I have to go,” Oliver says. 

She knows that there is no use arguing with him. He is the mayor of the city and this attack is their fault. Of course Oliver has to go. 

“Please be careful,” she says, causing him to give her an amused look. “I’m serious. It’s us that they wanted to kill.” 

“I’ll be careful,” he says, coming over to give her a proper goodbye kiss. When she glares at him, he adds, “I promise.” 

She grabs onto his tie and pulls him in for another kiss, just to be sure. 

“I’m not going to hide in fear while they attack my people,” he reminds her, as if she needs him to. She knows how seriously he takes his job as leader and protector of Star City. She’s proud of him for that. She just wishes sometimes he wasn’t always so willing to jump in front of a bullet for it. 

“I took an oath. This is my city,” he says.  

Felicity gives him a sad smile and reminds herself that he’s at least promised to be careful, which is the most she can expect from him. 

“I love you,” she calls after him, wanting to make sure it was said. 

He pauses in the doorway and turns back to smile at her sadly. She can tell that his own thoughts are mirroring her’s. Last night had been perfect, but now it’s back to work. 

“I love you, too.” 

****

**_2022_ **

_ Felicity watches in horror as Oliver’s eyes slip shut again. Each time he drifts off, it takes longer than before for him to come back. He’s lost too much blood. She’s going to lose him and there’s nothing she can do about it.  _

_ Oliver is going to die down here and there is nothing she can do to stop it. Just like she hadn’t been able to stop those guards from torturing him all these weeks. Just like she hadn’t been able to stop her father from… _

_ Her father.  _

_ Felicity can still see his lifeless eyes staring up at her. There had been so much blood… _

_ All she’d wanted to do was save Oliver.  _

_ She doesn’t even remember doing it. She can remember standing up and shoving the computer off of the table, but after that, everything is blank. She can’t remember anything between making the decision to electrocute her father and coming to having beaten him savagely with the leg of a chair.  _

_ Her father was right. She’s going to hell.  _

_ The Torah clearly says it, “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” Long ago in hebrew school, her teacher had made it clear to her. God didn’t deliver this commandment because children owed their parents for taking care of them. This mitzvah was not conditional upon what a parent does for their child, or even if they are good parents. Children must honor their parents for giving them the gift of life.  _

_ She likes to think that God would make an exception in her case... Perhaps he would have. Perhaps if she’d only electrocuted her father like she’d planned, forgiveness would be on the table. But she hadn’t. She’d beaten him savagely.  _

_ There’d been so much blood.  _

_ The room feels too small. The air too thin.  _

_ What has she done?  _

_ What has she done?  _

_ “‘re comin’,” Oliver mumbles, his speech slurring. His face is nearly white. “‘Licity…”  _

_ “I’m right here,” she whispers as she bites back a hysterical sob. She can’t do this. She can’t watch Oliver die. “Stay with me. Please.”  _

_ She presses down harder on the sweatshirt she has against his leg, praying that the bleeding stops.  _

_ Oliver’s arms drop and his body slumps forward, nearly falling out of the chair, but she catches him and pushes him back as her eyes go to the heavy flow of blood pouring out of his arm.  _

_ She can’t do this.  _

_ She can’t lose him.  _

_ “Please,” she cries. “Don’t leave me.” _

_ She can’t handle this. Oliver has to make it out of here alive. Their children need him. She’s in no condition to be a mother right now. The girls need Oliver.  _

_ “Please. Please. Please,” she whispers repeatedly, looking up to the screens, begging ARGUS to come quickly. Oliver won’t make it much longer, and if he dies, she may as well give up fighting.  _

_ The doorknob starts to jiggle and Felicity’s eyes go to the door. Somebody is trying to get in. A pounding at the door has her gasping.  _

_ “Open the door, Klara!” somebody yells.  _

_ Felicity glances back at Oliver, who is passed out. She tries to shake him awake, “Oliver. Oliver!” she whispers loudly, needing him to hear her but not wanting to confirm to anyone on the other side that they are indeed in here.  _

_ “Oliver,” she pleads, begging him to wake up, but he doesn’t respond.  _

_ Her fingers immediately go to his neck to check for a pulse. It’s there, but it’s incredibly faint. When she moves her hands back to try and put pressure on and stop the bleeding from his leg and arm, her eyes can’t look away from the blood on his neck that her handprint had left.  _

_ There is blood on her hands that will never come off and she’s already leaving marks on those she loves with it.  _

_ She’s killed for it.  _

_ She killed for Oliver.  _

_ She killed her own father.  _

_ What kind of person does that?  _

_ “Klara! We know you are in there!” somebody yells. “Open up and we’ll help your husband. He’s shot right? He won’t live much longer and you can’t stay in there forever.”  _

_ Felicity bites her lip and weighs her options. She knows that ARGUS is coming. Lyla wouldn’t let them down. But she’s not sure how much longer Oliver has and they’ve already been so hurt for disobeying orders. Maybe it’s time she just complies. She’s already going to hell anyways, at this point, who even cares.  _

_ She just has to make sure Oliver will be alright.  _

_ This can’t have been for nothing.  _

_ She can’t have gone through this for nothing.  _

_ She watches as her tears fall to his bare chest and mix with his blood as it travels down his body. She stares transfixed. How has this become their life? How is she watching her husband bleed out in a guard’s post in a terrorist cell in Israel that was run by her father?  _

_ When she joined Team Arrow, she always thought her life may one day end in a situation like this, but she never imagined that it would be her fault. That her own family would be the cause of their demise.  _

_ “I’m sorry,” she cries as her entire body trembles.  _

_ “Keep going,” Oliver whispers, his words sounding garbled and far away, but they are words and it’s a beautiful sound.  _

_ “Stay with me, please,” she whispers. “I can’t do this alone. Stay with me.”  _

_ The satellite phone that Oliver had used to call Lyla rings and Felicity dives for the phone to answer it.  _

_ “Hello? Are you here? He’s dying,” she cries into the phone.  _

_ “Agents are touching down as we speak. Infrared shows 35 heat signatures inside. We need your position before we attack,” a brisk, no-nonsense voice says.  _

_ Felicity shakes her head. She hadn’t been paying attention when Oliver was dragging her up here. She was still focused on the image of her father’s beaten body. Had he taken them up one flight of stairs or two? Had they gone left or right?  _

_ “Hello? We need to know your location,” he repeats. “Ma’am?”  _

_ “Northwest,” Oliver says, grabbing the phone out of her hands.  _

_ Felicity hadn’t realized he’d come back to and she’s surprised that he has the strength to pick up a phone.  _

_ “First floor, Northwest,” he says, though it sounds like he’s choking on blood. “Guard post…”  _

_ The phone slips from his hands and shatters into pieces, but she’s more concerned that he’s started coughing up blood. She grabs his leg to examine the wound. It’s a through and through. She then grabs his arm and her heart stops when she doesn’t immediately see an exit wound. If the bullet has started traveling, there’s no telling what kind of damage it is doing to his system.  _

_ Oliver slips out of his chair, and this time she can’t catch him. She just barely cushions his head before it slams into the concrete floor.  _

_ This is it. ARGUS isn’t going to make it in time. Oliver is going to die.  _

_ **** _

**2026**

“Are we absolutely sure the threat is legitimate?” Dillon asks the room as Oliver stares out the window, ignoring the argument going on around him. His district attorney and police commissioner have been at this for over an hour, ever since the ultimatum came in. Oliver doesn’t understand what they are still arguing about. It’s clear what he has to do. He has to turn himself over to the Order. 

“The threat is legitimate,” Lopez says gruffly, clearly offended that Dillon would question the integrity of the information. “My men checked it out.” 

“We can’t turn over Oliver,” Dillon says.

“I’m not suggesting we do,” Lopez says. “But we also have been unable to find any leads on where or when this next attack will come.” 

An hour ago, the SCPD received a package from The Final Order. The instructions inside were clear. Starling City has 24 hours to turn over the Queen family or another attack on the city will take place. According to the Order, the attack on Fairview Park this morning was just a warm up. What they have planned is bigger than anything the city has seen since the Undertaking. 

Oliver runs his hands over his face in frustration. He still can’t believe they’ve let it get this far. He should have been able to take the Order out weeks ago before any of this could happen. Starling General just informed him not five minutes ago that the mother and father that had been in emergency surgery died and their two children are still in critical condition. 

“It’s alright, Oliver,” Lopez says. “We are going to figure something out.” 

“No, we aren’t,” Oliver says, defeated. 

If they had a week, perhaps they could come up with a plan. But they don’t. They have 23 hours left to figure out how to bring down a terrorist organization that they’ve been struggling to take down since October. Felicity has been combing through data non-stop for days and has yet to find anything useful. The entire situation is hopeless. There is only one solution. 

“It’s clear what has to happen,” Oliver says.

“You are not turning yourself over,” Dillon says. “This city has lost enough mayors to terrorists. Do you not remember what things were like before you got elected? This city won’t survive losing you.” 

“They’ve survived losing worse,” he says. “Star City is strong.” 

“And what if turning yourself over isn’t enough?” Lopez says. “They asked for your family. What happens when they go after Felicity? Or Thea? What happens when they go after William, Grace, and Ella and you aren’t here to protect them?” 

“They won’t touch my family,” he says, though he isn’t confident that he’ll be able to negotiate a deal on their behalf. He’s simply praying that by turning himself over they’ll leave the rest of his family alone. 

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Lopez says firmly. 

“Well maybe we should!” Oliver says, slamming his hand down on the table. “503 people died in the Undertaking. 503  _ innocent _ people. We all know the Order is more than capable of following through on their threats and I won’t stand by while they kill the people of this city in an attempt to get to me.” 

“Oliver,” Dillon says, exasperated. “Think about your family.” 

Oliver sighs deeply. He  _ is _ thinking about his family. He’s also thinking about the millions of other families that live in this city and rely on him to keep this city safe — both as the mayor and the Green Arrow. 

He stands up and grabs his jacket off the back of the chair and puts it on. 

“Where are you going?” Lopez asks, immediately standing up. 

“I’m going to the hospital to visit those children,” he says. “Then I’m stopping by the homes of those two joggers to console their families. After that, I’m going home to spend what could be my last night with my family—” 

“Oliver, please—” Lopez tries to reason with him, but he continues to talk over him. 

“Call me if you find anything,” Oliver says. “But if we don’t have any leads by noon tomorrow, I’m turning myself over. End of discussion.” 

“You can’t make this decision,” Dillon says. 

“I don’t want to have to,” Oliver says. “So I suggest you work your asses off these next 23 hours to figure out how to stop whatever terrorist attack the Order has planned.” 

And with that, Oliver leaves the men in his office to continue to work the case as he and his security head out towards the hospital. 

_ **** _

“Daddy?” Ella asks Oliver from her spot on the floor in front of the couch. Oliver is busy putting her hair in the french braids she wants and has been asking Felicity to do all day, but that Felicity couldn’t afford the time away from her hacking to help her with. Not since Dillon Scott called and informed her of Oliver’s insane plan to hand himself over to the Order. She has 18 hours to find something she can use against the Order or Oliver is going to turn himself over and she doesn’t know if she’ll be able to stop him. 

The two of them haven’t had a chance to talk about it since the girls have been around and Felicity doesn’t want them to know about what’s going on, but rest assured, she’s livid. Oliver is insane if he thinks anyone will agree to this. He’s also incredibly stupid if he thinks his death will solve any problems. With Oliver out of the way, The Final Order will just continue terrorizing the city without the Green Arrow or the mayor to stop them. 

She needs to come up with another solution that doesn’t involve Oliver dying or the entire city being hit with a major terrorist attack. She’s so close. So close to breaking through the firewall and getting the rest of the information they need to bring the Order down completely. 

“Daddy,” Ella says again clearly annoyed. 

“Hmm,” he hums, distractedly. She knows his mind is on The Order and whatever attack they have planned just like hers is. 

“If a school was on fire, would you save all the children?” she asks, instantly causing both of their heads to snap up. 

Where did that come from? Did she hear something? Had the Order not kept their promise and decided to go for another terrorist attack today rather than waiting for Oliver to turn himself over tomorrow? 

“What?” 

Ella points to the TV. Felicity had forgotten it was still on. They’d been watching the news when the girls were dropped back off and rather than turning it off, they’d simply muted it. 

“Oh god,” Oliver sucks in a breath. 

The news is broadcasting images of a school on fire. Felicity instantly pulls up the news on her laptop while Oliver turns up the volume. 

Where is this? Felicity doesn’t recognize the building, but that doesn’t mean much. She doesn’t know every school in Star City.    
  
“About an hour ago, Midway City Fire Department was called to Lakeview Elementary for a fire. While MCPD has not confirmed, reports are saying that a bomb is suspected. Here is what we have been able to confirm. The fire alarm was sound at 8:46am this morning. Classes were in session at that time. The school has an enrollment of 576 students ranging from grades K through 5th and 72 staff members.

“While many people have been successfully evacuated, the fire department continues to work on rescuing people still inside. It is unknown how many people are unaccounted for, but sources are estimating at least 3 classes are trapped inside—” 

“Oliver,” Felicity whispers helplessly. She feels an overwhelming need to help, but knows there is nothing that they can do. Midway City is four hours away by plane and they have their own crisis here. 

She briefly wonders if this is the Order’s doing as well, before watching images of Hawkman and Hawkwoman flying into the building. That’s when the pieces fall together. Kendra and Carter have a son who would be elementary age. This bomb was a trap laid for them.    
  
“Reports say that local Midway superheroes Hawkman and Hawkwoman are inside.” 

“Do you know Hawkman and Hawkwoman, too?” Ella asks. 

Oliver’s eyes meet Felicity’s. They’ve lost touch with Kendra and Carter over the years. They’ve seen them maybe once or twice since they left the Legends several years back, but they don’t really keep up with each other. Still, Felicity doesn’t want to see anything happen to them and she can’t imagine Oliver does either. 

She can’t believe this is another random attack. Not with everything going on in the world. 

“I set alerts to track money trails,” she says, shaking her head in disbelief. “I didn’t find anything about Midway City getting attacked.” 

Then again, her entire focus has been on The Final Order and not The Council. In all of the craziness of living in a safehouse and hiding from the Order, she’d nearly forgotten to worry about The Council. She had to have missed something. 

“Oh god… I should have seen this coming,” she says, feeling guilty, praying that Kendra and Carter make it out of this alive. 

“Are you going to help them, Daddy?” Ella asks. 

“It’s too far away,” Oliver tells her, his voice giving away his regret. “By the time I made it there, whatever is happening would be over.” 

“The Flash could make it,” Ella says, still oblivious that her Uncle Barry is The Flash.

Oliver’s eyes once again meet hers in regret. Barry is on the other side of the world right now where they’ve left him in hiding. They’ve been so consumed with their own problems that they hadn’t been working very hard at finding a way to help him out of his situation.     
  
Kendra and Carter are going to get killed and they won’t be able to do anything but watch it on television helplessly.    
  
“They’ll reincarnate,” Oliver says, nodding, clearly trying to reassure himself. As if reincarnating makes them dying okay. 

“Yeah,” she says, nodding as well and doing her best not to think of what is going to happen to their child.

“Daddy,” Ella cries, burying her face in Oliver’s chest when another explosion goes off in the building. Oliver covers Ella’s face with his hands so that she can’t see what is happening, but neither of them turn off the TV. 

They both stare helplessly as a series of additional bombs go off at the school and the entire building crumbles. 

The television screen goes black suddenly and white words appear on their screen: 

_ You’ve got 17 hours left, Queens or Star City can expect much worse. _

_ **** _

**_2022_ **

_ The first thing he realizes is that his head feels cloudy. Not the throbbing kind of cloudy that he’s grown used to from so many beatings, but this is something he hasn’t felt in awhile. They’ve drugged him. It’s an interesting tactic, considering they’ve been refusing him all meds, wanting him to feel every drag of their scalpel until he passes out from the pain.  _

_ Something’s changed.  _

_ Oliver tries to think back to how today is different. He tries to remember if anything has happened that would bring about a change in their approach.  _

_ There were the usual chains… Hot pokers… and… a fire? Only, it wasn’t the fire they’d made to keep the pokers hot. No, this was different. This was… _

_ Had Felicity broken a computer?  _

‘Five.’

_ He remembers a countdown. He can hear Abraham counting down to something. There was a gunshot and intense pain. Two gunshots, actually. One to his thigh and another to his arm. Felicity had been so scared. Abraham was threatening to kill him.  _

_ Oh god.  _

_ It all comes flooding back to Oliver now.  _

_ Felicity had killed Abraham. They’d attempted to escape. They’d been waiting for ARGUS to come and rescue them.  _

_ The steady beeping of the heart rate monitor means they were unsuccessful. They’d been caught. They’d been so close, but he’d failed. Once again.  _

_ They are still trapped in Abraham’s bunker.  _

_ Felicity… _

_ Oliver’s eyes fly open as he looks around desperate to find Felicity. She’d killed Abraham and they are going to kill her for that if they haven’t already.  _

_ He ignores the way his body protests. He has to get to Felicity before they hurt her. He has to protect her.  _

_ “Woah. Woah. Calm down.”  _

_ His eyes fly around the room, but they don’t register any of his surroundings. His heart pounds as he tries to find his breath.  _

_ “It’s okay.”  _

_ He can’t loose her. Not like this. Not because she was just trying to save him.  _

_ “Oliver. Stop.”  _

_ He yanks at the IV and the wires that are holding him to the bed and tosses them away from him, determined to get to Felicity, trying not to think about how long he’s been under for. At how long they could have had her alone.  _

_ Is this why they drugged him? To make sure he wasn’t awake when they took Felicity from him?  _

_ “Get off me!” he yells, pushing forcibly at the hands against his shoulders.  _

_ A set of hands grabs onto his wrists and tries to hold him back. He’s about to fight them off when a small voice breaks through the fog in his head.  _

_ “Daddy?”  _

_ Oliver shakes his head and blinks, sure that his mind is playing tricks on him.  _

_ “Dad, stop.”  _

_ Oliver closes his eyes tight, but when he opens them, he’s not met with the sight he expects.  _

_ Thea is in front of him, holding onto his wrists. William is to his left, staring down at him in concern. To his right is Felicity, holding a crying Ella while Grace stands on a chair, staring at him with huge, scared eyes.  _

_ He blinks a few more times, taking in the room around him.  _

_ He’s not back at the bunker. He’s not with Abraham’s men, being held prisoner. Felicity is right beside him, safe and sound.  _

_ “What?” he asks, shaking his head, trying to remember what happened.  _

_ “Daddy?” Grace says tentatively and the sound of her voice is music to his ears.  _

_ This is real.  _

_ He looks over at his daughter, but Felicity has her arm in front of Grace, holding her back from climbing into bed with him.  _

_ When Oliver’s eyes go to Thea and notice her lip is bleeding, he realizes that he must have hit her in his attempt to break free.  _

_ He closes his eyes for a few moments and tries to force the last bit of fog out of his brain. The drugs still have him in a haze, but he can now accept that he’s with his family and they appear, for now, safe.  _

_ He opens his eyes and looks at Thea sheepishly, “I’m okay.”  _

_ He pulls his arms out of her grasp and she doesn’t put up a fight, clearly confident that he won’t fight back anymore. He holds his arms out to Grace, who jumps onto the bed and into his arms while everyone else in the room reminds her to be careful.  _

_ Oliver buries his face in her hair and he can’t help but cry as the scent of lavender hits him hard.  _

_ “It’s okay, Daddy,” Grace says, patting his back gently.  _

_ Oliver nods, unable to do anything more in this moment but cry. Cry from relief at seeing his children for the first time in months. Cry from relief that Felicity and he made it out of that hell hole alive. Cry from the pain at having to endure the longest and worst torture he’s ever had to — including what he’d gone through with the League of Assassins. Cry from regret at how massively he’d failed his family in not getting Felicity and himself home sooner. Not getting them both home before they’d been broken. Before Felicity had to cross a line he’d hoped she’d never have to cross.  _

_ Oliver reaches out blindly for William and Felicity, who both join in on the family hug, squeezing themselves onto the tiny hospital bed. Soon the mattress sinks even further and he knows Thea’s joined them as well.  _

_ He’s home.  _

_ They are home.  _

_ Everything is going to be alright.  _

**Author's Note:**

> *As always, comments of all kinds are always very much appreciated!


End file.
